>I don't raise horses or dogs, but I had Labrador Retriever Hankie neutered
> at a very young age and shortly after read that this can cause a delay in
> the closing of the growth plates resulting in a taller dog. I haven't a
> clue if it's true, but he is a very tall dog.
>
> Nancy
It's a little bit true. Closure is influenced by hormones so if there
little hormone at puberty there is a slight delay of closure that results in
a slight increase in height. It is statistically significant but really hard
to see in real life and far less than the expected differences in height
that you would see within a litter. Some people are really wound up about
it, though. I wish they would get as wound up about the number of dogs (and
cats) that wind up being killed in the animal "shelters". I don't know
about horses but I would assume that it would be similar. I doubt that it
is a big enough difference for most people to want to keep a potential
gelding as a stallion through the obnoxious stallion behavior that often
occurs in young, unsaturated male horses (if they want shorter) or geld
young, if they want "taller". but people have all kinds of opinion, so who
knows. I worry more about fly strike and geld them when the flies disappear
in the fall.
Penny
