At home: Tools of the Trade....

Castrating a young horse.

Jaynes rescued colt, 'Chance' stood swaying slightly, heavily sedated in the field. The vet, prepared, like an army field surgeon. Hot water, scrub, boxes of sterilised utensils laid out carefully. "It's as clean as field surgery can get".

Chance, perhaps anticipating the operation sucked his threatened articles up. The vet injected a local anaesthetic to drop them into position for removal. Castrating a horse is hard to watch, even for a hardened and more accustomed eye. The horse, fully loaded up with painkiller, anaesthetic and antibiotic feels very little at the time. A small open incision is made and sacs are pulled through, cut and clamped for bleeding. It's a clean cut, not much blood or rather I expected more.

Jack, our cob had his removed at nearly two years old, by which stage they had grown into more tennis ball sized articles. I suppose looking back, that it must have been more painful for him because they were bigger.

That said, its a grim job. It's is fair to say, though that more colt horses born in The UK don't even reach castration. This picture would be a bolt gun for them. There are more colt horses shot, than castrated. The unlicensed breeding of horses in Britain is out of control, too many horses and not enough owners. You only have to turn up at a horse sale and see how many are sell for less than £150, how many are offered for free on Facebook. That, is sadly the route to the meat market for most.

Whilst this may appear to be a brutal picture. The alternatives are far worse.

Also see HERE......if you want to see more...:( x