A Baby Boomer Dreams of Arabian Horses - Rhythm's Story - Part 8

Part One of the Baby Boomer Series

Rhythm's Story starts here

It's a funny thing about stallions, no matter how old they get, or how big their testicles get, they can always suck those things back up - well not really inside but pretty darn far up. They do it when it's too cold outside. They do it when they feel threatened sometimes. And they'll do it if you shoot cold water up there! LOL Believe me, I know, I've done it dozens of times. What has that got to do with Rhythm being resistant about loping, you ask. Well, that's exactly what I wanted to know.

I don't know when it first happened that I noticed the young Arabian horse only had one testicle down low. But I knew it was weird immediately. The horse was now four years old and he had both testicles like he should. They were bigger than life, actually twice as big as Legs's. How come all of a sudden I only saw one in this horse who had two visible testicles from the instant he was born?


Every person at Harvey's clinic where the horse stood on his hind legs talking to mares will tell you about them. They were the subject of much discussion that day....and for that matter many other days after that. What can I say, this horse was hung in every sense of the word. It couldn't be missed.

So suddenly, I find myself only seeing one testicle. Then I'm wondering when did I see two. How long has it been? A day, a week, a month, now I really want to know. So I started keeping track. Sure enough I wasn't seeing two testicles anymore at all. What had happened to the other one? And more importantly to me, was this the root of the problem with the horse's lope?

So I called to make an appointment with the vet. It was really hard to do because even on the phone he was calling the horse a cryptorchid. There was NO WAY that Rhythm was a cryptorchid and I didn't want him being referred to as such. I was having enough problems getting this breeding business of mine off the ground. Rumors like this can fly like wildfire through the Arabian horse grapevine. That was the last thing that Legs or I needed especially since it wasn't true.



A cryptorchid is a male horse who only drops one or sometimes even no testicles down into the scrotum. The testicles get caught up in the body cavity on the other side of the inguinal ring when it permanently closes. The testicles cannot produce sperm so the horse is sterile. AND since the time when that inguinal ring closes is genetically determined cryptorchism is a genetic disorder.

I was just going to have to trust this vet was smart enough to figure out the difference between my mature stallion with some kind of problem and a cryptorchid. There was no way I could figure this out on my own, I needed the vet's help. So I made the appointment and I waited.

To be continued...........

Rhythm's Story - The Problem

More pictures of Rhythm is the bosal. The last one I put in so Lori could see the angle better and that this bridle is well underneath his eye. If the bosal is on properly it should never hit the horse in the eye. And used properly, the bosal is not uncomfortable for the horse. But like anything else, it can be abused and make a horse sore. This one happens to be made from kangaroo and is very very soft.

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