why not just male/female?

[the Ol'Line Rebel]

Hello yet again ,

This is just a general gripe. I have always wondered all these years why the choices for sex cover all possible names (except "stallion" or "broodmare", I guess). To wit: gelding, colt, horse, mare, filly.

Why not just gelding-male-female?

I am very confused as to if there is a purpose to designating "colt" vs. "horse". I've seen no rules about it, and they would be silly if in place because sometimes 1 doesn't know if a horse died as a "youngster" so would never have been more than a "colt", etc. Whereas old horses we know are listed as "colt".

Further, imagine coming in here the 1st time or when you're fuzzy or haven't been on in months and seeing a horse come up with an "M", then another come up as an "F" - you might think, "oh, this is a male and this is a female". No!

It's potentially confusing. Bottom line, I just don't know why we have to differentiate between a young animal and "mature". Heck, PedQuery doesn't differentiate when choosing a sire or dam!

Just stick to plain male and female, along with the gelding!

(Oops - gelding comment - sometimes old horses [and maybe recently too] were gelded after siring horses. Why not allow "geldings" to be in the sire lists when choosing a sire?)

Causing more trouble,
Rebel

[Lucy]

I agree with you, however, I have no say in the matter. While there are no hard-and-fast rules in place, I personally only use 'horse' and 'mare' for known breeding animals.

As for horses gelded post-breeding, this has an easy fix - edit the entry back to a colt or horse, add the progeny, then 're-geld' daddy. A note in the ex-stud's comment field will keep things clear for viewers (if you know the approximate date the horse was gelded, that's very helpful to mention). If the horse is locked, PM me the details and I'll handle it...

The foal will eventually turn up on the error list, but I can tackle that if/when it arises - heck, if you think of it when it comes up, PM me the foal's names, and I'll head the error message off at the pass.

[Lucy]

As an aside, there have been recent post-stud geldings; in fact I was told that my old horse's sire, Heraclitus, was snipped shortly after he was concieved (I have not changed his entry, as I have never been able to confirm this).

There was also a stakes winner who went to stud in Japan, but flopped, and then was gelded...Fraise, I think? I may be confusing him with someone else....

[Nessa]

Well my two bits is that a horse of any sex can be designated horse, but only males can be colts(younger than 5), horse(older than 4), gelding(any age but a nonbreeder), stallion(breeder of any age). Only females can be filly(younger than 5), mare(older than 4), though this one can be a breeder, or spayed, broodmare(breeder of any age).