My trainer came out today for a training ride on my mare. My mare is 5, restarted under saddle a year now since being off the track. She is very alpha and is quite frankly a bitch under saddle sometimes…a lot of the times? She is much, much “kinder” to me under saddle probably because I do not put her to work quite like a professional does (uh, amateur here albeit an experienced one but still). Her issues are purely disobedience - she would score in the negatives on the “submission” mark in a test at her current rate. On the ground she is dead broke. Ground drives/lunges like a lazy angel. Put any real pressure on her though and she pins her ears and screams “make me.” My vet has been out multiple times and cannot find a thing wrong with her physically. This last visit on April 5th (normal spring stuff and a lameness/musculoskeletal exam for good measure) my vet said honestly her only issue, if she has one, is “up here” smiles sheepishly and taps her temple with her forefinger. My trainer always does eventually get her down and working nicely at the end of a ride but right now she ALWAYS puts up a good fight first. She is a lovely mover, very athletic, and has lots of great worthwhile qualities. She is in good hands with an accomplished 4* rider.
Today my trainer said “do yourself a favor and put this mare on regumate.” I had considered regumate before but this mare is not particularly hormonal - she is the exact same in heat as she is out of it (minus the extra peeing and occasional winking at her pasture mates). If anything, if I were to look hard at her behavior, I might say she is just a little lazier and sweeter when she is in heat.
Has anyone put their mare on regumate for “attitude” or for being a temperamental cow and not necessarily for heat-related hormonalness? When I worked as a working student in the past many of the mares in training were kept on regumate but I always assumed it was because they must have had nasty cycles.
I like the birth control analogy though, good point!
