Paulo is no longer the Stallion from Hell...

...or from anywhere else. This is the first time in my personal experience a castration was ever viewed as emergency surgery.

Paulo's excessive hormones have been driving him insane for some time now. Friday he went over the line - or at least over the fence. He managed, more or less from a standing start since he had virtually no running room, to clear a five-foot iron fence without killing himself for the purpose of murdering the horse in the next paddock. In J's serious opinion, it was dope and cut him or just shoot him. Once upon a time he was H's favorite saddle horse, because his trail endurance is very impressive for an Arab, and she likes spirited horses. But she's progressively been less and less able to ride him because of his unpredictability - it's been quite a while since she could ride him at all in the company of other horses. There's a line between spirited and crazy, and Paulo had pretty clearly crossed that line. Selling him in that condition was out of the question, so they decided the best of the list of bad alternatives was to geld him.

It is to be hoped that, in a few weeks when the testosterone works its way out of his system, Paulo will go back to his sweet self. He really can be a very pleasant horse. I'm sorry it happened, but can't really say I disagree with the decision.