Kind of an odd question, but I wonder, do race mares cycle at the track? Or are they given something to regulate their hormones?
The reason I ask is that I have a TB mare in her first spring off the track and she is, ahem … rather obvious about her heat cycles. :eek:
She raced fairly consistently for 5 years and was a solid performer at a low-level track, so I am just wondering how (or if) that was managed at all.
It depends on the mare. Some cycle like any other mare and some are kept on regumate.
Thanks, LaurieB. I think I’ll ask her trainer. I can’t imagine her (or any other mare) acting like that in a shedrow. I would imagine it would be… quite distracting.
Yes mares cycle the same at the track as they would do at a farm in a field.
“Controlling” their natural cycling during breeding season is a tricky question because as LaurieB said, “depends on the mare”. In my personal experience breaking/starting and training at the farm, which I also bred and foaled a lot of mares on. I never found “mares/fillies” to exhibit behavior during the breeding season that made them difficult to work with. There was the odd exception but never so difficult that I had to resort to meds to keep the filly/mare in training.
I dealt with it on the ground and on their backs. Kept their minds on other things as best as possible. I have never found mares/fillies that I worked with as sport horses to be/get difficult during the breeding season. Guess I was lucky and or my idea of being “difficult” is different than others.
None of the fillies/mares that I had at the track were ever given Regumate. I look at my vet bills closely, lol.
As pointed out in a number of articles on the subject. There is no guarantee that Regumate will give the desired effect. According to this in an article on the subject. It could have the opposite effect.
[I]"Many people turn to giving their mares the drug Regumate. This is a progesterone that mimics the hormonal profile of a pregnancy so the mare doesn’t show in season. It eliminates problems with excessive sexual behavior that interfere with work, but doesn’t do a thing for irritability or touchiness, and may actually make that worse. Elevated progesterone mimics the hormonal profile during human PMS, too, and if you’ve ever been pregnant, you know you don’t exactly always feel positive and energized then either.
Regumate can cause temporary infertility, which will last for a while even after you stop administering it, so bear that in mind if you want to breed the mare. Mares coming off Regumate frequently have cycling abnormalities for many months. That can make them even worse than they were before they started the drug. Another drawback is that care must be taken not to get it on your own skin, where it can be absorbed and cause c[/I]ycling problems in women, or infertility in both men and women"
I have been told/heard using/trying Chastetree Berry works. I have never used it myself.
“If you really need something to control your mare’s seasons, a better first choice is often Chastetree Berry. Try a half-ounce to one ounce per day of the ground berries from a bulk herbal supplier like HerbalCom, www.herbalcom.com, or use an equine product like Hormonise from EquiNaturals, www.equinaturals.com, or Evitex from Emerald Valley, www.emeraldvalleybotanicals.com. This botanical is usually very successful in regulating cycles and toning down both behavior problems and irritability. Other mare supplements use different herbs, including many calming ingredients. These options are definitely worth trying”
This is good article on the subject;
Thanks Gumtree for chiming in. I did check with her trainer and he confirmed she wasn’t on Regumate at the track. Her behavior isn’t a necessarily a problem, I was just surprised at how strongly she shows in heat, and wondered if that stuff ever caused problems in a shedrow filled with colts. Maybe her mind was on running when she was at the track and now that she’s let down her mind has turned to other things 
Edited to add: she’s not a witchy or difficult mare at all. Quite the opposite- she’s actually very sweet and very good minded. But the squealing and the winking and the peeing - Oh My!
“But the squealing and the winking and the peeing - Oh My!”
Yup, lol. That’s why a lot of non breeding boarding farms prefer geldings. Mare/fillies in general but esp when in season are very messy housekeepers. They add extra bedding and labor expenses.
The joke at the track when a trainer/owner really needed to win a race. Run a filly/mare that is in full blown heat, hot as a pistol against colts/geldings. Break sharp send her to the lead and settle into a slow pace. All the boys will never pass her. There’ll just sit on/off her butt beating up on each other. Their minds won’t be on racing
At the track fillies and mares go out together as a rule. When any are in heat the boy stay in their stalls until the girls are finished training. We would give the other trainers in the barn a heads up when a filly/mare was in heat.
I LOVE that! So true even for simply hacking-out. For that gelding that just ‘must’ be alpha/always-in-the-lead-horse.
Today at Royal Ascot one of the jockeys smacked his horse hard a few times behind the gate, to “wake the colt up,” the commentators said. They said the horse seemed lazy and unfocused; apparently his mind was “back at the paddock.”
After the race the commentators updated this, saying they had been told that instead of being unfocused the colt had been very focused on the fillies leaving the track after the previous race.
The colt came in second.
I’m thinking the colt you have in mind also found the ground a little firmer than he prefers. But the colt’s trainer also agreed with the commentators that his top-class charge had girls on his mind. Maybe a little of both?
Yes, I think so.
Cracksman wasn’t overly impressive last time out either, he was all out to win a weakish rendition of the Coronation Cup at Epsom. I think excuses aside that he is starting to go off the boil.
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