This is my first time posting so sorry if this topic has already been discussed many times. But I am at my wits end.
The problem: I am currently riding a mare and her heat cycles have really gotten in the way of riding her and both of our enjoyment. This is the first mare I have ever ridden consistently so I am a bit of a newb regarding heat cycles. For this mare, it seems her pms lasts about 3-4 days, her actually cycle last 5-6 days. Anyway she not nasty or naughty but her heat cycles are so strong that it makes her super stiff and has unraveled a lot of the progress we achieved during the winter months and it also makes me feel guilty to ride her because I know she is not feeling well. For instance, she bangs herself against the round bale and even lifts her tail up when we walk by the barn cat! It takes me about a good 15 minutes to work her out of that stiffness and I mostly stay off her back and do a lot of lateral work. But even then she gets super rushy in the trot and canter, hangs on the bit so much my shoulders hurt, constantly breaks into the canter, rushes fences and is hard to balance after fences. Her owner and I have discussed putting her on regumate but both of us are uncomfortable handling those hormones. So my question is how can I help manage this obvious pain she is in? I have given her some bute or banamine twice when I’ve had time to let her digest it. That helped slightly but of course neither drugs are a long term solution till the Fall. Has anyone had success with magic mare or smart mare supplements with mares suffering like this? Btw she is already on joint supplements, and the vet is coming out friday to flex her hocks and her owner is starting her on joint injections next week.
Here us her history if this helps: November I started riding her about 3 days a week as I was still in grad school in another county and couldn’t come out a ton. She had a foal in April of 2012 and had not been ridden regularly in two years, but had been ridden to 1st level and was started over fences before that. For November through February I rode 3-4 days, kept a long connection and slowly got her back into shape with hacks out and large circle work in the ring. In March I began to ask for a light connection and we started dressage work, still riding at most 4 days a week and slowly built up the dressage work. I also introduced gymnastics and small 2’ jumps. All of this went well and she was a super fun to ride, kinda of lazy and not forward but wanting to please. Surprisingly a really nice horse to jump, never refused, and calm, but I did have to ride her to the base to prevent her from leaving early. In April I increased my riding to 5 days a week and I decided to take her to a schooling show and do tadpole ct with her for fun, and she was a nervous whinnying wreck, I attributed it to herd mentality issues because she was turned out in a herd situation with her foal before he was weaned and she came home. The next day her heat cycle started. Since then she would be really rushy (in the field and the arena). Jumping her became annoying, she would over jump these small fences and run after jumping and not even pay attention to me to slow down and balance. I’ve had a handful of good rides since her first spring cycle and at the very least manage I want to manage this situation.
