Mares Gone Wild

[horsey1cr]

I brought in a new 3 year old filly to my barn a few days ago. I also have a 6 year old mare I’ve had at the same barn since she was 3. Yesterday, I put the 3yo next to the 6yo in the cross-ties and the 6yo acted extremely interested in the 3yo, however nothing unusual really happened. Today, the 6yo went totally nuts seeing me lead the 3yo past her stall. She whinnied, reared, bucked and acted somewhat stud-ish. She never got over it and was distracted and whinnying while I rode her. Then she obsessed about the 3yo the rest of the day and actually didn’t finish her dinner this evening.

What is it? Jealousy? Hormones? She may be going into heat but I didn’t see her show it. I’ve never seen anything like this. I board at a huge facility with 400+ horses. New horses come in weekly and this mare never takes notice. I also work with another mare that is 8 years old and several geldings and she never had a problem. What’s with the new 3yo? Anyone?

[3phase]

Kinda funny…my coming 9 yo was acting all crazy today too! She has 2 mares next to her and 3 geldings (all ind. paddocks.) One of the mares has only been around for a few days. The 3 mares have a love triangle going and could care less about the boys. They’ve got eachother cycling or something. When I took my mare out, she non-stop whinnied and was a big handful. When I took her back out she galloped over to them like she hadn’t seen them forever! One of the other mares was calling out the whole time too! A bit annoying but funny at the same time.
PreMare time it is!!! It helped a bit last year and it’s way cheaper than Regumate.
The other thing is, for the first 6ish years of her life she’d been in a broodmare herd. She totally acted like a stud today lol…a bit confused! So don’t know if that contributed to her being more sensitive at these times.
Maybe your new 3 yo reminds your 6 yo of another horse or something. Or maybe she’s just in love lol.
Good luck!

[skippy60]

Its possible she recognizes this horse… or thought she did, but it turned out to be a different horse then she thought. The ones I ride do this a lot with random horses at shows… NOT good show behavior!!! (Elimination, here we come…)

[horsey1cr]

No she’s never met this mare before. I did let them touch noses – thinking the 6yo would figure out they’re both mares and get over it but only made her more obsessive and try to jump out of her stall. I’m thinking it’s all spring hormones but she’s acting like a stallion…? I would consider regumate but I’m sending this mare out to be bred May 1st and don’t want to mess up her cycles - not sure if it would but nevertheless, I want her fertile as can be. :yes:

[Gayle_in_Oregon]

Recognition

She may ‘think’ she recognizes this mare AND she is the age of dominance, ownership.

I had a stallion who hand bred a grey mare EVERY OTHER DAY for 60 days (the mare never ovulated). He for the REST of HIS LIFE got excited every time he say a gray horse way more than any other color! It was funny to me.

They do make strong bonds for various reasons. It sounds like your mare really likes the 3 yo and wants to own her.

Also, mares have testosterone like human women. It is what drives sex drive, not estrogen. Some mares have way more than others, just like human women!