I know that you can geld stallions and make them geldings, but I was wondering if people desex mares to stop them breeding or improve their temperment too?

Some mares get very moody and tempermental when they are in heat, so much so that they become difficult to ride. If a mare is a very valuable performance animal, such as in olympic events, she might be desexed, but it's rarely done because it's a very complicated surgery in a horse.

Buckskin, are those just certian mares, or most all of them? And does it hurt at all, whats the recovery time for horse?

Mares are a bit like women - Some get insane hormonal mood swings and some don't. Most mares aren't desexed - they're just left out in the paddock where they can be moody to their heart's content for a while, but the high end performers might be.

The procedure is similar to a flank spay in a dog, but the mechanics of hte operation are different because a horse is such a huge animal, and having it off its feet for any length of time can cause problems. A technique is being developed where the surgery is done via the unmentionable-on-a-G-rated-site as in cattle which could be done standing.

If the unmentionable but way more humane technique mentioned above technique were to be developed to the point that it were usable by the masses then I might reconsider my thoughts. But as thing stands I hate to hear of people even thinking about doing this to a mare. The surgery is tough and high risk when other things can take care of the problem.

Just give the horse a break when they are off colour.