Pregnant mare is a WITCH!

[JWB]

I recently bred my (normally very sweet) mare for the first time. She’s just 23 days in foal now but all the sudden, she’s not getting along with the other mares.

She has ALWAYS been turned out with other mares and loved company since she was a baby, (she is six now) but around day 16 of her pregnancy she started keeping to herself, kicking and squealing at anyone who came near her, taking on a very tall, aggressive stallion like posture whenever any horses come into her general vicinity. Yesterday she chased another mare through a fence line. Fortunately there were no serious injuries. Needless to say, she’s now on solo turn out in a paddock…

I’m hoping she’ll eventually be able to go back in with the others so her baby is not alone, and so she can be out on the grass some, but right now I don’t want to risk injury to her or any other horses.

Could it be crazy hormones making her a witch, and will it get better, or am I stuck with the monster mare for the next year??

[Sunnydays]

Personality change often accompanies pregnancy (same with some people). Usually mares are just more sensitive to their body-space, but sometimes changes are radical. It is possible she may mellow as her pregnancy progresses, but no guarantee,
Post-foaling, most return to their normal temperament. Get in with the mare and foal early on, so she will accept you as part of the family.

[JWB]

Fortunately she’s still great with people - It’s just the other horses.

[toomanyponies]

We have one just like that - she will be back to normal very soon Prob by month 3.

Its just the hormone change. . .

[Prime_Time_Rider]

When my mare was pregnant with her first foal, a colt, she was a witch for the entire 11 months! My husband said it was like she was having PMS all the time!

Second preganancy was a filly, and my maer was back to her normally sweet natured self.

Sounds like hormones, and I’m voting she’ll have a colt!

[JWB]

Was really hoping she’d go in with the other pregnant mare and they could live together with their babies next year, but if we rebreed her, I wouldn’t trust her.

[Aven]

I have one who goes the other way. Open she is “The Raging Douchcanoe”, in foal she is super sweet to humans, horses and dogs…

Now that I think back, my old grey mare was always cranky at the beginning of a pregnancy. She got better as she progressed. She too was only cranky to other horses.

[mikali]

When I bred my mare the first time, she tried to kick the walls down in her stall because she felt her neighbour “was too close”. Around 3 months in, everything settled and she was fine after that. Around the 10 month mark, I moved her to another farm to foal out, she had no problems joining the group of mares.

This past pregnancy she did not experience the same hormonal shift… I think she spent a week pinning her ears at everyone.

First foal was a colt, second was a filly.

[JWB]

[QUOTE=Aven;6349703]
“The Raging Douchcanoe”[/QUOTE]

:lol: This is my word of the day!

[Rhyadawn]

Hormones make females crazy! Species nonspecific… Seriously though, I would expect that she will settle down soon enough. Some mares do go though this the whole pregnancy, but not many. And her next pregnancy could be totally different (just like people…).