At 75 days of gestation (A), the testis is located within the adominal cavity. The gubernacular cord attaches the testis to the location where the scrotum will develop. At 175 days of gestation (B), the testis has grown and tissue is enlarging into the area of the eventual scrotum. Near term (C), the testis has moved out of the adominal cavity but is not fully in the scrotum. The testes will descend into the scrotum before 2 weeks of age when the opening into the adominal cavity closes. Failure of the testes to descend results in the condition known as cryptorchidism. While a cryptorchid individual may have two testes retained, it is more common to have at least one testes descend normally. Careful palpation of the scrotum is required to diagnosis cryptorchidism in young colts as the gubernaculum may be quite large. Cryptorchidism is highly heritable so breeding is discouraged and the individual should be castrated (gelded). Cryptorchid testes also have a high probability of becoming cancerous later in life.