young stallion

Question
we have a three year old stallion who has only one testicle, the other one never descended. We have started him about 2 1/2 months ago and have been riding him for about 1 month, he has been doing great, very sweet, very responsive to moving off pressure, no bit yet. We had him in the arena with another horse when hay was being put out for another pasture and his back was to this "monster" which came over the hill, he caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye and went ballistic. He hopped two jumps forward and bucked the rider off, then he kicked him in the air and then again when he was on the ground, he was very aggressive towards him, he put the guy in the hospital for a couple of days with multiple broken ribs and a ruptured lung. Of course now we are very concerned about what to do with this horse, he is a small pony and the rider on him is a very experienced horseman. We do not want to give up on him because of one incident and are looking for some advice, thank you Nancy Haines

Answer
The first place to start fixing this problem is going to sound obvious and I'm sorry... but Castrate this stud! Cryptorchid (having only one descended testicle) stallions are still very much stallions and even though the castration process is not as easy as it is with a "normal" stallion, it is the only way to effectively manage the hormone induced stallion tendencies. Aggression should NEVER be ignored or overlooked in a young stallion. An aggressive youngster is going to mature into an aggressive adult and somebody will get hurt.

Allowing any stallion to remain intact after causing an injury intentionally to his handler/rider is not in the stallions best interests. These stallions will be dangerous and unpredictable... an accident waiting to happen... Personalities such as these are not desirable characteristics to be passed down to future generations. It is best to eliminate the trait from the bloodline completely and castrate the stallion exhibiting it.

My best wishes go out to the poor rider of this stallion... Please pass along the thought that a good stallion will make a BETTER gelding...

Good luck