I’m hoping some people who have used chaste tree berry for their mares can help me out on deciding where to go from here.
I put my mare on 1 tsp of chaste tree berry for 3 months, going off of it for 5-7 days once a month. I did this in part because my mare is consistently crabby, but mostly because she had never, ever gone into heat that I could tell in the entire 4 years I’ve had her. I know some mare owners are probably positively green with jealousy that I had a mare that NEVER went into heat and wondering why the heck I wanted her to go into heat, but to me, a mare not going into heat at any point between 7 and 12 years old meant something was off.
Good news is that, it worked! She first went into a…mock heat? about two months in- lots of tail lifting to the side when you groomed her rump- and then she just finished a 5 day heat a few days ago, squatting and winking and all. Her mood has improved a bit at the same time, but there are other things that could have changed that and I’m not willing to say that Chaste Tree Berry is the reason.
My question is: do I stop giving my mare Chaste Tree Berry or should I continue using it? I have heard other owners of mares that don’t have cushings discontinue use after getting the results they wanted, and things continue to go well for them and their mares. The idea there is that it has balanced out the hormones and the production is permanently changed- which does seem a bit hard to believe, but I’m tempted to test it out since my mare isn’t nuts or in pain without the berry and the results could help out other mare owners.
But most of what I read about Chaste Berry for mares seems to expect it to be continued permanently, or some mention using it only during the time of the year when mares would normally be going into heat. Both make sense to me, but I am wondering about the long term effects on using something that alters hormone production opposed to just supplementing the hormones, which is what human birth control pills do.
Anyone have any personal experience with chaste tree berry and their mares to share?
