"bad" mares: Can they be reformed? Are they real?

[Kottbulle]

I have been dealing with an alpha mare for 3 years now. I do believe some of her issues were due to bad training and handling. But I also know it definitely has to do with her heat cycle. (interestingly she went off to training at 4 when i am wondering if she started getting her first heat cycles)
For about a week before she ovulate she is a hot mess. Charges thru gates and into and out of her stall. Under saddle she will simply not go forward. Like stops and doesn’t move. HUGELY embarassing when your horse does this at the end of March in the middle of a Bernie Traurig clinic. No amount of spurs or crop will make her go forward. She freaks out about jumping , and won’t even walk over a pole on the ground. And the one time I did get her forward because I thought maybe we just needed to establish who was the boss in the relationship, I ended up getting launched twice (well cuz you know you can’t end on getting bucked off so i of course got back on)
Regumate helps a little bit, and we even tried breeding her, because despite her monthly episodes she is a very sweet mare, loving and easy going. When we did manage to get her to hold her pregnancies for 30-90 days she was a dream… even under saddle. But alas she will not stay pregnant.
After we get out from under the mountain of bills from the failed breeding endeavors, I may seriously consider spaying her. She is clearly uncomfortable, and at 12 I feel she has so much more to offer than just being a pasture ornament. I’m not saying she has to have a job, but if nothing else it would be nice to not get run over bringing her in an out.

It was explained to me by my vet that the ovaries are surrounded by a netting of nerves that are similar to those around a man testicles, and when they prepare to ovulate that the ovaries swell sometimes to the size of grapefruits, stretching those nerves. I can only imagine that is extremely painful. I swear when she is really having an intense heat cycle, she tends to have anywhere from 4-10 follicles on each side, that i can feel heat inner loin area. often times more pronounced on one side over the other.

As an aside… I use to own her damn. She cycled like clock work, was super easy to breed( she got pregnant on her first breeding with 20 % motility as a maiden mare!), and was actually a joy to ride when in heat. She actually wanted to be ridden and I swear would be depressed if she saw me riding my gelding, and not her. She was a VERY alpha mare with other mares, and could only be turned out with geldings or all hell would break loose. but once we were able to bond, she would do just about anything for me.
Sadly she didn’t pass her reproductive system onto her her daughter.

[Edre]

I mean, I think ultimately each horse is going to end up being an individual in their own right. That said, I don’t put a whole lot of weight in “bad mares! Unmanageable!” (Either in season or not.) I think mares get an unfairly bad rap for that when a lot of it comes down to handling error.

Two examples:
First mare is a lovely young horse. Super charming, inquisitive, gregarious. She’s almost intrusive with how involved she wants to be with things. Think lab in horse form.

That said, when she cycles she is absolutely miserable. She’s in distress, depressed, sulky. It’s very easy to tell she’s in physical discomfort and while she doesn’t get snarky or act out, you know she’s not quite right. (It manifested enough like colic at first that she would get banamine which incidentally, restored her in short order to her usual spirits.)

This mare has every justification to be a “bad mare” (degree of discomfort) but she isn’t.

Mare two on the other hand, verges on “bad” but time and time again has shown that her spates of almost aggressive misbehavior (she’s one that will go with teeth or kick at someone with intent to connect) are very person specific. Her owners have taken the time to try to diagnose issues (scoped for ulcers, X-rays, saddle fit, dental, bit type, turn out, feed, massage chiro and acupuncture) but everyone’s conclusion is that the mare isn’t in pain. She’s just exploitative of amateur owners. When their trainer manages the mare (even when she’s in season) she might pull a mare face or two but there’s no kicking or biting.

Again, this is a mare that could be a “bad mare” but she’s really not. It isn’t that she’s unilaterally nasty to everyone, she’s just figured out where she stands in the food chain with people (and her owners coo and make even more of a fuss over her when she is in season, allowing even more behavior to get a pass).

With a few very rare exceptions, I think there aren’t bad horses. It’s more just bad handing (or sometimes, not even bad handling/management but just not the approach that the horse in question requires).

[MsM]

I have always owned geldings, but have ridden and, of course, been around plenty of mares. My take away is that individual differences are far greater than gender differences.
I always thought of the sayings about being able to “tell a gelding” when working with my last two geldings. Nope. You better negotiate and explain and reward clearly. Get pushy and you are in for a fight you will not win. Sure, I have seen other geldings stongarmed into obedience, but I have seen mares dealt with the same way. And I have seen spectacular fails when trying that with either!
I don’t doubt many mares have mood changes related to their cycles. But at least you have some clue what you are dealing with. I used to tell my gelding when he was inexplicably moody, “You don’t have a hormone defense!”
Happily, I like horses that have a bit more “personality” than some others prefer and that express their opinions (well, I don’t always like it…) I find this varies by individual and is affected by individual propensities, and breed characteristics, as well as gender.