My mare has gone into heat since moving and instead of falling in love with the strapping Clyde X beside her she has settled on the 25 y/o Ex Broodie who is her turnout buddy! I’ve never seen my mare attracted to another of her kind :0 has anyone else seen this behavior in their mares?
When we had herds of broodmares, we had the occasional mare that acted a little like a stallion.
When mares came in heat, they would follow her around and she would check them out like a stallion.
The vet thought her hormones were a little out of whack, but she did breed and had foals like other mares.
It was handy, you knew when someone was in heat, even if they had silent heats otherwise, they would hang with that mare and get attention from her.
Sounds like maybe it is only the mare in heat that is acting interested in the other mare, right?
Don’t know what you really have there.
Maybe try posting on the Breeding forum?
Maybe the Clyde X is just an exceptionally attractive older woman 
Yeah they will flirt with anyone.
I knew a mare who would mount other mares. Turned out she had a cyst on her ovaries.
No mounting, but squirting and peeing and she is very buddy sour when torn from her friend
I’d be reluctant to ascribe any sexual motivation to buddy sourness in a herd animal. Especially in the situation of a horse preferring the company of a turn-out buddy to that of other, opposite sex horses she has less exposure to. If she’s winking and squirting in that direction for a few days every 3 weeks or so, that’s another story.
Considering that geldings are also not hormonally equivalent to intact male horses, and that equine sexual dimorphism is pretty minimal, it doesn’t seem surprising at all that if mares direct estrous displays toward geldings, they might also sometimes direct them toward other mares.
If it isn’t cyclical behavior I’d guess it either isn’t attraction in a sexual sense, or it is a sign of an atypical hormonal situation (e.g. ovarian cyst, as mentioned by TC).
My mares flirt with everyone and anyone. When they is no one else around, they flirt with each other, peeing, nibbling each other’s necks, squealing, you name it.
Yes I was also going to add that masculinity in geldings runs from zero to very partial. Some of them just look at a skanky mare like she’s from another planet, some get pissy and chase her away, some express moderate interest and then wander off in a daze. A few proudcut will actually try to mount. In other words flirting with geldings can often be frustrating and pointless. After all they have been emasculated! Another mare might at least understand that there is this thing called sex, especially one whose been bred multiple times.
No hormonal issues! Thank goodness. She was out of heat until we moved barns and she was introduced to her stall mate, a gelding. However, she is turned out with only this old ex broodie. They are all in separate pipepens lined up next to each other, so her and broodie only have each other for company. She’s become almost dangerously attached to this mare. This is a new behavior that started on Tuesday. This has never happened to us. On one hand I am happy she has a friend and on another I am afraid this is only adding to her already problematic insecurity issues.
Ironically, she is FINE to ride under saddle. But when taken out of turnout and put in her stall, she paces, screams, trots up and down (it’s connected to an outdoor run) and looks every which way for her friend. Trainer will work on her with this, but I can confirm she does squat, pee, squeal, nuzzle, and nibble broodmare in turnout. Shows no interest in the gelding boarded beside her, though he wishes she would!
Well heat won’t last forever and should stop over winter.
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My senior mare, during a period of her pregnancy, would behave like a stallion up to and including mounting other mares and any geldings that happened to be pastured with her. She was the daughter of the then alpha mare and became the alpha mare after her dam’s death. This would last a few weeks and then go away. The vet said it was likely a hormonal imbalance. Some reading I did suggested that mares carrying fillies did this more often than mares carrying colts.
At the end of the day I don’t think it was about sex as much as it was about herd dominance. Mounting behavior in many animals is a dominance display.
In any event as long as there is no physical injury resulting then it’s “herd business” and the humans should likely leave it alone!!!
G.
@Guilherme - but there’s no mounting going on, just nuzzling and lots of squatting, winking, and peeing. She acts the same way she did with geldings who would sniff her, but now she’s chosen a mare instead of a gelding. I just wanted to know if this happened to anyone else? Usually this behavior, for her, is directed at geldings but since she is not turned out with the boys i assume she is simply redirecting it onto broodmare.
They are attached at the hip. She still screams and twirls in her stall when separated from Mama (lol). I am sensing some deep mommy problems in this horse! :lol:
I have a KWPN mare who would mount her pasture mates every time they came in heat. She screamed like a stallion, and looked like a stallion, so we had her hormone levels checked several times, and had her ovaries ultrasounded. Everything was normal so we used Estrumate and that sorted all of it out. That all happened 3 years ago, and she’s been quite normal in her behaviour ever since (but she still roars like a stallion and looks like one).
My friends mare is flirting, peeing with her new female paddock mate. I have seen mares do this numerous times over the years.
@Simbalism - really!!! It completely took me by surprise! I’ve heard if it happening but i’ve never seen it with my own eyes! O_O
Yes.
In heat, if no stallion is in the area, this can happen. They will also sometimes tease geldings or even try to mount them. Mounting behavior is not just sexual it’s also behavioral, a “dominance” display.
While in foal there will also sometimes it’s just “flirting” but we had one that would display full blown stallion behavior for a few weeks. No physiological issue, just that at some point in foal development her hormones went off and she behaved differently. It passed and she returned to normal and produced a normal foal.
One explanation I found from a reproductive specialist was that during foal gestation reproductive system develops. That can trigger a change in mare hormonal level, according to this researcher. The effect is more pronounced with a developing filly and a developing stallion. I lost the cite to this long ago; sorry about that! 
If the behavior does not pass quickly then I’d have it checked out. If it recurs every time I’d check it. But if it’s just a passing thing I’d not worry about it.
G.
