What Is a Colt Horse?

moreso if they are gelded at a young age. This is because geldingthe practice of removing the colts testes also known as castration or neuteringrefocuses the colts reproductive growth into other aspects of development.
Other HorseRelated Definitions
The horseracing world has a stricter definition of the word colt a young male horse between the ages of two and five. Races for colts and fillies are commonplace. After the age of five colts are called either stallions or geldings. In a race a filly may be any female horse younger than five years old. After the age of four a filly is called a mare.
All young equids including donkeys ponies mules zebras and onagers share the definitions of colt and filly. Thus you might hear someone talking about a donkey filly or pony colt.
Colts in Popular Culture
The word colt comes from the Old English expression for young ass. In Biblical times the term was also used for young camels. Its similar to the Swedish kult which referred to a young boar or piglet or to a boy. The Danish kuld meant offspring or brood and was used as early as the 13th century as a term for a child.
In Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue published in 1796 an old man who married or kept the company of a young girl was said to have a colts tooth in his head.