As I mentioned in earlier posts, my daughter and I are trying to educate ourselves so we can make a good choice when we go looking for a 1.30+M horse. Because my daughter is certified in sport horse massage, and has training in the Masterson Method and T.E.A.M., she has occasion to work on a lot of hunters and jumpers. Also, the trainers and many clients at her barn enlist her help in hacking and even jumping their horses. As a result, she’s come to appreciate mares more and more. In her observation at least, the mares at her barn are more sensitive and communicative and less likely to injure themselves playing with other horses, which is how her last gelding got hurt. Just going by the sale ads, geldings seem to be preferred because there are so many more of them advertised. Maybe because of concerns about marishness? In any case, I’m wondering if the experienced folks here have any opinions, in general, about mares vs. geldings as sport horses.
My rider prefers and is most successful with mares. He won another class in Europe with a mare yesterday…I think the last time he won a class with a stallion/gelding was 2014 :lol::lol::lol:
My partner will tell anyone that a really top mare is better than a stallion or gelding.
Both think they are smarter and more sensitive.
Stallions and geldings are still generally preferred, and a lot of that is the market.
Top mares may also be more expensive or not make it to the market because they are more valuable for breeding. When I needed to downsize I sold my lovely amiable gelding, not only because it was so easy, but also because I wanted to retain my very nice mare for breeding. Which is what she is doing at present.
Though I agree that the geldings are the ones in the field playing and biting at each other over the fence, my mare is the one I worry more about. When she is in her stall, or even turned out, she can kick to show her mareyness, and once or twice kicked hard enough to make herself sore. Nothing permanent, but enough to make me worry.
I love mares and prefer them. I find that the “click” with a mare takes a little more work - and reaps a lot more reward. I also find that they tend to be more sensitive and opinionated, and it makes me ride more accurately and push myself more. My current horse is every single stereotype of a TB mare, and I love her to bits and pieces.
I love mares, always have, though I don’t compete at a high level (just the provincial circuit, hunters). I think mares make you work for their affection more, and a bond you have with a mare is more hard-won. Geldings kind of just drift along in a haze of goofiness, and if you give them some carrots and pats they generally like you. Mares you have to win over, but when you do, they will try their hearts out for you.
You do have to deal with mare moodiness when they cycle, and they ARE more opinionated, so sometimes you have to tailor things a bit to how they like it so they are happy 
But at my farm I can confirm that mares do not play rough like the geldings do, so they are generally (knocks on wood furiously) less likely to get hurt in the paddock and don’t wreck their blankets as often. I do find that while geldings play, mares will run, so if something bugs them they are more likely to gallop around in a frenzy than geldings when turned out. The mares are also more likely to kick at each other when annoyed, so it’s important to create compatible mare groups. But if you do, generally management is quite easy.
Of course, I personally have one of the least-mareish mares out there, so maybe I am biased. . . even on her cycle she is good to ride, gets a little squealy in the paddock and kicks the walls in her stall, but riding is fine. Even my friend that hates mares doesn’t mind mine!
Thanks for your responses–so our observations are confirmed. As to mares kept off the market for breeding, I understand that eggs can be harvested without too invasive a procedure, but maybe breeding the “old-fashioned” way is still most common?
If I had to pick a horse to ride through Hell, it would definitely be a mare.
I prefer mares and my two most-fun to ride and show horses right now are both mares. However, many people prefer geldings for their consistency – no inconvenient heat-related issues cropping up during the big show. However, I don’t show a ton and my mares are both fairly easy to deal with even when they are cycling, though it is still sometimes a factor.
But a good mare seems to really try harder, and if they are injured, I like the option of a back-up career as a broodmare (not that one should breed just because it’s a mare, but mine are well bred, performance proven, and well worth breeding). I’m hate the idea of retiring a 12yo gelding for 15 years, but a mare can have a few foals in that time period, and still be useful.
I think the phrase “Chestnut mare buyer beware” exists to keep how great chestnut mares are secret 
I do not have a chestnut mare, but my chestnut gelding comes from one, and his mom had a lot more common sense, although I don’t know how much color had to do with it.:lol:
I also agree that geldings tend to do silly things in the pasture more and are less sensitive.
No certainly with sport horse mares eggs are harvested for transfer, but that doesn’t mean the mare makes it to market ie isn’t sold. People often retain good mares for breeding either after they retire from sport ir more commonly these days with embryo transfer while mare is competing.
my riders top mare is ten. She has like four or five foals at present, none of which she has carried. My rider purchased a half interest, her breeder retained the other half and does the breeding. They now have had this arrangement with three mares.
Mare always my first preference. And chestnut mares are the best of the best! Geldings are OK but I don’t feel the bond I do with my girls…
I love mares! My barn of retirees at my parents is a 5 stall and all 5 stalls are occupied by mares, 4 of them are chestnut to boot! My current horse is a chestnut gelding. He is a gelding only in the name. If you worked with him and rode him but never looked at his undercarriage you would think you were working with a mare. I love him to death and his mare like personality is a big part of why I love him so much!
I’ve always had mares - I had 4 until I got my current horse who is a gelding. I was used to mares and was worried that a gelding wouldn’t bond with me the same way, but my gelding is the sweetest little love bug and so curious and friendly and loves people and other horses. So I say look at the individual horse, as long as it’s not a stallion!
I love mares and have always gotten along really well with them. My two riding horses are geldings right now but I also have a young filly.
When I went to buy a weanling, I specifically looked only at fillies. I looked for something very well bred that would be able to produce valuable babies if she got hurt before ever having a career. It’s one way to hedge the risk of buying babies a bit. My filly is KWPN with a strong pedigree and mareline (and her half-sister is a GP jumper in Europe).
A gelding gets hurt at 3 and you have a useless pasture pet to support for 25 years. I love my geldings too but it’s nice to have options.
Not me, I wouldn’t take one for free, I just don’t like most of them.
BAC you are the reason that so many of us get some excellent horses at great prices. There still seems to be a prejudice against mares…stupid but there it is. Very glad some people don’t like mares. Gives us that love them more opportunity to buy some really nice ones.
I can’t help but respond to this post even though I only have experience with a handful of mares. I’m an adult rerider so I don’t currently own but I loved my first horse so much and she was a mare. We showed in equitation, hunter, and jumper classes and she was amazing. People would come up to my trainer and ask if she was for sale. She was marish with other horses but always well behaved with people. My mom also had a mare that she did dressage with and she was on the opposite end of the spectrum - not marish at all, you could turn her out pretty much with anyone.
I admit, gender has never really factored into my deciding whether or not I get a horse, but I have somehow ended up only with geldings in my adult life – and all bay at that! Growing up, my parents had a wonderful foundation QH mare that was just beyond words in how quirky and kind she was - she was a pistol but in a good way - also, my first real “project” was a little tiny QH yearling filly that we rescued (along with a 4 m/o PMU colt) from a wonderful rescue in our area. Both were PMUs, but the filly was a pure QH. The filly got broken and sold and made a nice career of herself being a lesson and trail horse, last I heard; she was a nice mare. Very easy going especially when you consider a dumb 15 y/o was responsible for the bulk of her “education”. Smaller than most people wanted, and chestnut to boot, but I don’t ever remember having an issue with her except she was hard to teach to have her feet picked. Once she understood it, she was good.
That being said, there have been some mares in my life that I have just loved taking care of as a barn worker. I still have a picture on my laptop of this one mare, a pinto named ‘Ellie’ – I don’t know how to describe it other than to cheesily say she just liked me, and I liked her - I looked forward to bringing her out of the stall every morning. The picture is of her after I turned her out; it was one of those misty sunny mornings where the sun cuts right through the trees in bright pylons of light. I unclipped her lead and she took two steps, took a bite of grass, and turned around to say “what, are you coming?”
I have always enjoyed riding mares - I don’t know if they “give” me more than my geldings have, but they certainly have a way of riding that they seem to enjoy and all of the mares I’ve ridden consistently have been very direct with very little bloviating… Geldings sometimes you just have to have a long, drawn out conversation about the stupid beam of light slanting through the indoor that they’ve seen 9235458686 times… Never had that problem with a mare. All of the ones I’ve ridden have been very down to earth and CONSUMMATE professionals.
There is definitely a bias out there against them, and I’ve never understood why. I’ve met more nasty, mulish geldings than I care to count, but only a handful of mares that gave me trouble.
I have no real preference as such. But mares have come my way and I do seem to have the quietness and way of approaching them that clicks. My current saddle horse is the granddaughter of my great chestnut mare.
Sometimes I find that geldings are a tad thick, slower thinkers and more forgiving.
I absolutely hate the coined expressions such as - “Chestnut mare beware”. Or that mares are “maresey” … a great horse is a great horse, regardless and mares like Brentina are poster girls.
Years ago, one did not even find any mares at the top levels of Dressage the preference was so great for the boys.
I think that clearly you can get added oomph in upper-level dressage (or the Spanish Riding School) by using stallions.
But I feel like I warm up to mares more than geldings. I like them, I worry about them. That said, I realize that geldings can have an endearing goofy playful friendliness, and also obviously don’t have the hormonal mood swings. But I always feel a little bit like a piece of the brain is missing in geldings. It might just be that I take mare behavior as the norm. It’s also possible that I would be a bit further along in my training progression if I had a gelding, rather than a mare!
