Ack, hyper mare! Help or suggestions needed...

[Green_Acres]

My mare is a little high strung sometimes, but now it’s worse than ever. She’s high as a kite even after a lunge in side reins and then a solid ride with lots of trot & canter today!

Is is it possible the lush spring grass could be causing any of this? She’s turned out 12 hours a day on nice pasture, fed 10% protein grain and Bermuda hay.

I ride her 4-5 times a week with lessons once or twice a week right now trying to get ready for a show in a week and half. She’s wearing me out, I’m too old for this! LOL!

[evelynthemare]

This has helped my mare a lot.

https://www.smartpakequine.com/ps/smartcalm-pellets-7476

Also, I think there’s a mare-particular natural supplement. Just something to think about. I am sure there are 100 other factors to consider as well.

[Green_Acres]

[QUOTE=evelynthemare;8097422]
This has helped my mare a lot.

https://www.smartpakequine.com/ps/smartcalm-pellets-7476

Also, I think there’s a mare-particular natural supplement. Just something to think about. I am sure there are 100 other factors to consider as well.[/QUOTE]

I used to have her on Smartpak Smartcalm Ultra until December when she decided she didn’t like it anymore. I believe it helped the couple of years I had her on it.

I changed her her to magnesium but I’m not convinced it’s doing anything.

[cherham]

Its spring and all the mare hormones are in overdrive. Try her on Regumate…if even just for a few months until her ovaries and back pain subside. She will be calmer and more attentive to you both under saddle and on the ground. After two weeks you should notice a much calmer and happier horse.

[Cherry]

Yes, it could be the grass… Ask that her feed be cut in half–that may help.

What kind of magnesium is it and how long has she been on it? It’s my understanding that mag. oxide and mag. sulfate are not as bio-available as other forms. Magnesium sometimes takes a few weeks to get into the bloodstream–be patient (but also cut back on feed).

[Green_Acres]

[QUOTE=cherham;8097436]
Its spring and all the mare hormones are in overdrive. Try her on Regumate…if even just for a few months until her ovaries and back pain subside. She will be calmer and more attentive to you both under saddle and on the ground. After two weeks you should notice a much calmer and happier horse.[/QUOTE]

I have her on depo shots and talked to my vet about trying Regumate oral but my vet didn’t feel like that would be any better than the depo shots. I have toyed with the idea of changing her to Regumate.

In the summer, I do end up cutting her grain as she is a pretty easy keeper and she doesn’t want as much feed / hay with all of the lush grass. I did cut her grain some starting last night to see if that would have any affect.

The funny thing is that my other horse who is a 14 y.o. OTTB who is a companion for her has been full of himself too. He’s been a total jerk lately and ran up to the metal pole gate last night and bent the bottom part of it. Ugh!!!

[findeight]

You are over feeding now that she’s on fresh grass. Look there instead of continuing to feed a more nutrient dense diet then she needs and grabbing a calming supplement.

I am surprised your vet said Depo works as good as Regumate, unless you are timing her cycles to determine the optimum time for the injections to have max effect on ovulation? It’s a real crapshoot. How often are you injecting and how are you determine on what day of her cycle to inject? Mares ovulate every 21 days on average, not 28 like humans, so if it’s a once a month injection, it’s very hit and miss. Regumate is daily, always the same level in the body. Most objections to it can be handled by wearing gloves at feeding time. Most mares can get by taking it in just Spring and again in early fall.

Treat the cause of the problem, don’t just cover it up. Transitional estrus plus too rich a diet for the level of work.

Cut back the gelding too. Post over on Horse Care with specific brand and weight ( and please actually weigh it) of grain she gets and our feed gurus over there can make some specific recommendations.

[beau159]

@Green Acres;8097401

Is is it possible the lush spring grass could be causing any of this? She’s turned out 12 hours a day on nice pasture, fed 10% protein grain and Bermuda hay.

If she’s hot, why is she on any grain at all? You said she’s an easy keeper, right?

If she’s getting good quality hay and pasture, she really doesn’t need the grain.

Also, how HARD do you work her? With my horse Red, he doesn’t really start calming down until he’s had some regular riding (which means 4 to 6 miles on the trail every day, mostly trotting and loping). And even then, he still has some “firecracker” days.

[Green_Acres]

Does anyone know if I switched her to Regumate, how quickly I would see any change if there was one?

Right now she’s getting Depo shots on the 1st and 15th of the month.

[findeight]

You will see the effects of Regumate within 21 days depending on where she is in her cycle when you start it. If you start the day after she cycles out, it will be 3 weeks, if you happen to start right before she goes in, you’ll see it within a few days.

I found the Regumate ended up less expensive then the every two week injections of Depo and was far easier for whoever was feeding to add then worrying about them missing a shot or trying to schedule the vet that often. Think if you board out, Regumate is the most dependable way.

[keatssu]

I’ve got my 2 mares on the altrenogest monthly injections - same thing as Regumate, but injectable. BETpharm is the pharmacy that compounds it. It’s much easier than giving it orally every day, and my understanding is that it works better than the depo shot.

One of my mares sounds similar to yours and it makes a huge difference. I tried her on Mare Magic and Smartmare Harmony and didn’t notice a significant difference.

Our cost is around $110 per injection. My vet wrote the prescription and I give it myself.

[VA_Hunter_Aside]

You could also ask your vet about putting marbles in her uterus. It’s somewhat new but has shown lots of promise. That’s what I’ve been thinking about trying with my seasonally “hot” mare.

Here are a couple articles:
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/13697/marbles-keep-mares-out-of-heat

http://equusmagazine.com/article/marblesmares_072806

[cherham]

Oh boy. Talk to me about marbles. This has been around forever…actually the Arab’s used it (and still do) for their female camels to keep them from coming into estrus. Can you imagine a caravan of male camels and female camels in heat! But they actually use round stones instead of a sterilized marble.

It does NOT prevent your mare from coming into season. What it does do is prevent a pregnancy from continuing and the mare will usually reabsorb the “fetus”. Ask me how I know??? A number of years ago we inserted a marble into one of my competition jumper mares. Cheaper then Regumate I was told. Fast forward 6 years. Decide to breed mare…ultrasound good, hormones levels good, everything perfect! Mare catches first try…21 day preg check later no foal. Mare catches second try…21 preg check later no foal. More ultrasounds, more blood tests. Everything good. Third insemination…first check good. 21 day check its gone again! OK what the heck is going on here. Vet turns to me and says “did we ever insert a marble into this mare?”. Ummmmm yes but mare is supposed to “spit” it out naturally after about 4 or 5 months. Yeah right. Now we are really suspicious. This mare has been cycling normal like clockwork for years. We do a final and last ultrasound (this is getting expensive as you can imagine) and voila! there is the damn marble…it has been moving around inside her uterus. My Vet can’t believe it…and he is an experienced repro vet we have been using for over 30 years. He slips the gloved hand inside, 30 seconds later he has it. It is scarred and pitted as if her body was trying to reabsorb it but still there, round and hard as a marble. 4th and last insemination of the season…mare caught first try as usual. 11 months later happy healthy foal on the ground. I have the marble stored in a bottle on a shelf in my barn lounge. No one believes me but its absolutely true. In any event my advice would be don’t waste your time and money. Go directly to the Regumate.

[VA_Hunter_Aside]

[QUOTE=cherham;8098787]
Oh boy. Talk to me about marbles. This has been around forever…actually the Arab’s used it (and still do) for their female camels to keep them from coming into estrus. Can you imagine a caravan of male camels and female camels in heat! But they actually use round stones instead of a sterilized marble.

It does NOT prevent your mare from coming into season. What it does do is prevent a pregnancy from continuing and the mare will usually reabsorb the “fetus”. Ask me how I know??? A number of years ago we inserted a marble into one of my competition jumper mares. Cheaper then Regumate I was told. Fast forward 6 years. Decide to breed mare…ultrasound good, hormones levels good, everything perfect! Mare catches first try…21 day preg check later no foal. Mare catches second try…21 preg check later no foal. More ultrasounds, more blood tests. Everything good. Third insemination…first check good. 21 day check its gone again! OK what the heck is going on here. Vet turns to me and says “did we ever insert a marble into this mare?”. Ummmmm yes but mare is supposed to “spit” it out naturally after about 4 or 5 months. Yeah right. Now we are really suspicious. This mare has been cycling normal like clockwork for years. We do a final and last ultrasound (this is getting expensive as you can imagine) and voila! there is the damn marble…it has been moving around inside her uterus. My Vet can’t believe it…and he is an experienced repro vet we have been using for over 30 years. He slips the gloved hand inside, 30 seconds later he has it. It is scarred and pitted as if her body was trying to reabsorb it but still there, round and hard as a marble. 4th and last insemination of the season…mare caught first try as usual. 11 months later happy healthy foal on the ground. I have the marble stored in a bottle on a shelf in my barn lounge. No one believes me but its absolutely true. In any event my advice would be don’t waste your time and money. Go directly to the Regumate.[/QUOTE]

WOW! What an ordeal! From what I’ve read the marble is supposed to be removed after the mare cycles again, or after a few months to allow her a normal cycle and then can be reinserted again.

[equisusan]

Thank you so much for making me appreciate all the amazing mares I’ve had in my life. I’ve never done depo or regumate or any calming supplement and I’ve had many mares. Maybe just lucky… who knows. Good luck. Mares will try their guts out for you which is why I love them. I just bought a new one this winter. The most I’ve ever had to deal with is some herd bound mares screaming for each other at a show and occasionally popping off the ground if you made them wait too long but really nothing of consequence.

[keatssu]

M

[QUOTE=equisusan;8099122]
Thank you so much for making me appreciate all the amazing mares I’ve had in my life. I’ve never done depo or regumate or any calming supplement and I’ve had many mares. Maybe just lucky… who knows. Good luck. Mares will try their guts out for you which is why I love them. I just bought a new one this winter. The most I’ve ever had to deal with is some herd bound mares screaming for each other at a show and occasionally popping off the ground if you made them wait too long but really nothing of consequence.[/QUOTE]

My husband and I were talking about our mares over breakfast today and agreed that we would never even consider a gelding “even with the shots,” he said. For all of the reasons equisusan listed. We work so hard and spend so much money on our farm that we feel it’s worth the money to take their hormonal days out of the equation. It doesn’t change their personalities at all. We would have a barn full of them if we could afford to!

[chisamba]

I have mares and i do not use hormones. So far, it has simply been a matter of a low starch mostly hay diet along with riding and training, and turn out, and a little tact with the aids.

I do not agree with the premise that you have to do five or six miles of hard work to get the horse to focus that just makes a fitter horse and a fit horse can just take longer and longer to get to focus.

I have also found that there are as many hot and goofy geldings as there are mares, but humans are so sexist they always blame the mareishness for anything a mare does. A gelding can have exactly the same behavior as a mare and in a gelding it is addressed as training and in a mare it is blamed on hormones.

anyway, rant over, train your horse to focus on you and your aids, and be consistent and considerate, and with a mare you will have a connection and level of co operation that is really great

[Green_Acres]

Update… I started her on Regumate yesterday and have cut her grain a little bit but I don’t want her to lose any weight so I will watch for that.

She was much better Saturday and yesterday for my lesson. I’m thinking last week when she was a total spaz that she was in season. Hopefully the Regumate will help and she will be good showing this weekend!

Thanks everyone for your comments / suggestions!!!