If the young stud beats the stallion he challenged, he gains his position in the herd. All the former stallions mares are his, as is his right to mate. However if he loses then the stallion he challenged is charged with preventing the young stud from ever mating. It is his duty to geld the challenger, to refuse such a task means banishment and gelding.

That was Blairs dilemma as he looked upon the prone form tied securely to the table. Normally it would be a pleasure to geld the young stallion now securely tied to the table. Certainly he had won the right to wield the blade that would deprive this youth of his equine pride. To deny him forever the pleasures a mare could provide. To cut short his line, never allowing him the fortune of having offspring. This time it was different. He felt sorry for the young stallion, regretted what he must do.

He should have refused the challenge at the start. Honour had forbade it, but the herd might have understood. They could not have faulted him for refusing to battle his own son. Yet he had accepted the challenge in the hopes that Rhoan would back down. Not that he had. Rhoan had been sure his father would step down without a fight, never believing that his own father could geld him. In the end neither one had budged, the battle went ahead.

It was a good fight, the opponents equally matched. In the end it came down to experience, and though Blair won it felt to him as if he had lost.

Now he stood before the gelding table, knife in hand. Rhoan tied securely, his bag cinched tight with moist rawhide strips. His eyes open wide as he pleaded, begged for his release. Desperate to remain a stallion. Never would he feel the velvet folds of a mares pussy. So much was to be denied him now. If only he had waited. The herd would have been his in a few years. Blair had intended to hand over the reins and retire, now he would have to wait.

“I’m sorry”

Blair sighed as he grasped the already cool bag and drew the sharp knife between the two rawhide strips