A male horse that has been neutered or castrated; also the act of castrating a horse.
From Old Norse 'geldr' meaning 'barren' or 'impotent.' The word entered English through Scandinavian contacts and was applied to the practice of castrating male horses to make them easier to handle.
Geldings were crucial to agricultural history because they're much more docile than stallions, yet stronger than mares—so most working horses throughout history were actually geldings, making them more common than either parent type!
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