What does proud cut mean?

Some horses retain sexual behaviors after gelding and are often called "proud cut". In the past this was said to be due to some testicular tissue being missed during the gelding procedure allowing testosterone production (but not sperm production) to continue. In some cases, this may have been true, especially considering the variety of crude methods of castration practiced over the last 2000 years. However, today, with the availability of restraining drugs and the level of knowledge and surgical techniques, it is unlikely that missed testicular tissue is the cause for the estimated 25 percent of geldings that are said to exhibit some type of stallion behaviors. Since the adrenal glands (located near the kidneys) also produce testosterone, it is thought that the cause of so-called "proud cut" behavior may be due to the (hyper)activity of a particular horse's adrenal glands. Other stallion-like behaviors may simply be poor manners due to inadequate training.

A gelding (horse castration) can be botched by not removing all the appropriate tissue above the testes. All the agonies of owning a stallion, with none of the benefits. When castrating farm animals of any kind have someone knowledgeable, teach you to do it, or have a qualified veterinarian do it.

if in doubt when buying a questionable male horse. . .have a vet palpate and do all the test necessary to find out the nature of the procedure required. Plan for an expensive vet call, or a in house surgery. The anesthesia alone can cost thousands. Lots of these faulty scrotum colts, aren't worth the medical dollars to correctly sterilize them.

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Definition: Inherited bad scrotum.. .bad surgical attempt. leaving the horse only partially sterilized. Look this up online for all the variants.

Proud cut is when a vet only half gelds a colt. Yes, there are unscrupulous vets out there that do this! A colt should have two descended testicles before gelding but due to genetic influences, sometimes one is left up in the abdomen. A vet will remove only the descended testicle and leave the 2nd one in the abdomen as it is often semi-major surgery to cut the other one out. (Obviously much more expensive!) This leaves the "gelding" with one intact testicle still producing testosterone and prone to dangerous stallion-like behavior. Some unsuspecting newbie comes along and buys the horse and gets hurt. This is also called a "ridgling" or cryptorchid.

Genetically, I've been seeing this happen more and more along the Quarter horse and Paint bloodlines. Registered geldings too (!) and breeders who sell a proud cut horse registered as a gelding can be sanctioned by the breed registry if caught. I bought an AQHA un-gelded colt at 16 months and knew he had an undescended testicle. When I pointed this out to the seller, they lowered his price by $4000. His gelding would have cost me about $150 if he had been normal. In reality, I had to haul him to a vet clinic for surgery and then give him antibiotic shots for 10 days when I got him home. The vet even gave me a baggie with both testicles in it to prove that he had done the job right!! His gelding ended up costing $600 but this was 10 years ago.

A proud-cut, ridgling, cryptorchid situation can be diagnosed by a blood test.