# I hate mares!!!! Horse people will understand...



## MillysMom (Nov 5, 2008)

I recently started riding an incredible mare that I really am falling in love with, but she is reminding me everyday why I don't normally own or ride mares. She is incredibly athletic - easily jumps 4 feet - and a real sweet heart on the ground with everything but her back legs. She'll follow you around for hours, and nickers if she can't see me.

To any horse people this all sounds great, but she recently started displaying a whole heckuva lot of mare behavior. Her latest trick is not wanting to canter where she either 1) slams on the breaks and bucks 2) kicks out her hind legs and bucks while sucking back. Getting her going is a rodeo ride, and she resists it every step. She also is landing from jumps and bucking like a bronco. Today I had a lesson working on getting her over this new bad habit, and it was a great lesson, but it really frustrates me that a horse that two weeks ago I was jumping higher than I had in YEARS is now pulling stupid stunts like this. One second she's doing this, and the next second she has her ears perked and is perfectly happy.

Hopefully the vet can make it out soon to give her a Depo shot... because I don't know if my patience can take much more of this behavior. She was bought at auction a little over a month ago, and I'm thinking the people just pulled her out of a field, clipped her, gave her depo, and took her to the auction. She was really skinny with zero muscle tone, but not at all marish the first few weeks. The Depo must have worn off already. 

Of course, to make it worse, she isn't just a mare, she's a chestnut mare! And she's an OTTB with super sensitive skin - it gets cloudy and she's covered in fungus and losing all her hair. Thankfully, we're really seeing lots of progress in her physical appearance, she's gained a ton of weight, is shiny, her feet are improving, and we've got the fungus somewhat under control. 

Mares are good at having colts who can then be gelded. I'm missing having a barn full of geldings right now! Stupid, stupid, stupid hormones.


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## Luci (May 26, 2009)

MillysMom said:


> Of course, to make it worse, she isn't just a mare, she's a chestnut mare!


Oh I hear you loud and clear! My last chestnut mare that I had the pleasure of working with gave me a black eye and ripped open my finger as I was trying to load her on a trailer. Brat!

Maybe try changing it up for a bit? She could be getting even worse because she's bored? Go for a hack with a nice calm gelding?


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## Ash (Sep 11, 2007)

Have you been doing a lot of training lately? could she perhaps be getting a little sour? My chestnut Arabian mare was like this. A dream to ride and show (she was a Western Pleasure horse) but too many lessons and not enough pasture time could put her in a mood. I used to ride her 4 days on and 3 days off. Could she be out anywhere? We have an Equine Chiropractor that I took both her and my then stallion to. It did help while they were in training. She also had an attitude while in heat. We also for the time we were showing her looked at getting her spayed. Also something to think about. Our mare came into heat this month sending my used to be stallion off his rocker. I had to seperate him from my old gelding as he felt the need bully him every 10 seconds. So yes, I can say I hate mares right now too. I do love my geldings! Hope she comes out of this funk and gets back to her old self.


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## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

MillysMom said:


> I recently started riding an incredible mare that I really am falling in love with, but she is reminding me everyday why I don't normally own or ride mares. She is incredibly athletic - easily jumps 4 feet - and a real sweet heart on the ground with everything but her back legs. She'll follow you around for hours, and nickers if she can't see me.
> 
> To any horse people this all sounds great, but she recently started displaying a whole heckuva lot of mare behavior. Her latest trick is not wanting to canter where she either 1) slams on the breaks and bucks 2) kicks out her hind legs and bucks while sucking back. Getting her going is a rodeo ride, and she resists it every step. She also is landing from jumps and bucking like a bronco. Today I had a lesson working on getting her over this new bad habit, and it was a great lesson, but it really frustrates me that a horse that two weeks ago I was jumping higher than I had in YEARS is now pulling stupid stunts like this. One second she's doing this, and the next second she has her ears perked and is perfectly happy.
> 
> ...


 
I'd find an equine vet who does VOM, or a certified VOM therapist. A friend has a Hanovarian mare who could be described just as the one you are riding, and VOM's have worked wonders for her.


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

How old is the mare? Since you were saying you were jumping her higher than you've done before, I'm assuming it's higher than she's done as well. It could be possible her back is sore since everything you're saying makes sense for a sore back. Sudden displays of kicking out/bucking/refusing to go forward are classic signs of back pain. 

Just re-read your post again - you mean she was in a field/not worked for god knows how long and she's jumping within a month? How high are you jumping her? 

I'd try giving her a few days off or longing her for 20 min max and give her muscles a chance to recover. Then re-evaluate the saddle you've got on her since she's probably gained muscle in a month and the saddle that was originally fitted could now be pinching. I don't think i'd be shooting her up with Depo and assuming that's the solution to the problem. Isn't it possible she's displaying this behaviour due to pain?

I trained/rode horses for 15 years before my showjumper injured himself and had to be retired. I trained a chestnut mare that sounds similar to the one you're riding: OTTB, chestnut and attitude. When she first started bucking like a bronc, we ruled out all pain isses. We had a chiro/masseuse come out to check her back/neck/haunches were fine, a dentist to float her teeth (she had some major issues going on there) and afterwards she was better - but still would throw in a buck or two when pissy. We found letting her free longe in the arena once a week really helped her attitude under saddle. Even though she was outside 24/7, she'd come in and go CRAZY free longing. Rearing, bucking, auto changes as she careened around the ring...I had a lesson on her the day after we did that for the first time and she was a different horse! I trained her for two years and we did the 3' jumpers and 3'3 hunters before she was sold...unfortunately she's now lost her confidence to a crappy trainer and the mare that would NEVER stop is now stopping frequently. So the thin-skinned mare is now being ridden in spurs (stupid when she's already forward off the leg) and a german martingale because the spurs make her go too fast for her rider. Unsurprisingly, she's now back to bucking/kicking out as she feels "trapped" with the way she's being ridden. 

Please check your mare for pain/teeth/saddle fitting before injecting her. Too often behaviour caused by pain gets labelled "mare-ish" because mares don't put up with it like most stoic geldings would.


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## MillysMom (Nov 5, 2008)

We're going to have the vet out next week to do a total work up, but we've found nothing that hurts her. The only thing that seems a little off is when she's on the cross ties she rests one back leg, and is very sensitive about touching the back of her rear legs, which makes me wonder what she had done to her legs in the past.

She gets tons of turnout, but she's currently the only horse in the barn, which I think is taking it's toll on her. An Olympic rider is bringing 4 horses in for the week this afternoon though (one is her Olympic mount), and I'm hoping having some horses in the barn will help her be happier. There are other horses on the property, but she has solo turn out (which we wish we could change, because she really loves other horses).

As far as her work load, she's doing a fair amount of fitness work, but we aren't over doing it. She gets a few days off each week, and only jumps once a week (only a few jumps each time). At the auction she was jumping 4' without any problems, but clearly out of shape... so she's got the scope. I took quite a few years off from riding and am just getting back... it's pretty bad when a 3'3" oxer looks like a 4' oxer now! The biggest we've jumped her was one fence at maybe 3'6", but I'm probably being generous with the height. We usually keep them around 2'6", because she's got the scope and we don't need the height to fix what we're working on.

It'll be interesting to see what the vet thinks next week. We're really trying hard not to over do anything. The one thing I'm thinking it could be is her getting used to her new body. She's really looking great physically, but it is a big change for her body. We know her teeth need to be floated, and that's probably going to happen within the next month. So that is something we're planning on changing/fixing.

I'm going to take all of these suggestions into account. We're really in a bind trying to figure this out. I can't wait to hear what the vet thinks... we've felt her all over and haven't found a single place that is sore, and she is 100% sound from all we can tell.


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## MillysMom (Nov 5, 2008)

I forgot to add she's 10. She's clearly knows a lot, but there are some very apparent holes in her training that make me think she was trained by people who really don't know what they're doing that we are working on a lot. I'll keep everyone posted on her work up. Apparently today she was great, just a bit fresh with the snaffle in and not her elevator (she's a jumper, but we might do some hunter schooling shows with her if we can get her in hunter mode). No bucking, and ears perked the whole time. I'm thinking we must've had a break through when I rode her yesterday - it ended on a good note, but that five steps forward two steps back thing is very frustrating. I'm sure it frustrates her that I'm not 100% accurate in my riding, either, bu she does take a joke, thank God!


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

My first thought: is she a chestnut? Something 'special' about those redheads!

I had always ridden mares until one day my DD asked me to hop on her gelding and get him started on neck reining. OMG, I couldn't believe the difference. For the first time EVER I was on a horse who was thinking about what I wanted not a personal agenda. I've never gone back: geldings all the time!


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