UPDATE!
So spayed my girl in May and she just went to her first show yesterday. While she was tight and nervous to start and I did need a quick lunge about 10 minutes for her to just move… I got on and with 10 minutes on her back had to go in for my 3rd level test. (Remember the last time she showed was pre spay and I had a spinning and rearing horse at 1st and 2nd level) had one very nervous girl going down centerline… and the turn into the first half pass she stopped… but I coaxed her forward and off she went. Test went better and better… she relaxed and breathed… especially after the walk she really relaxed into the work and we even had two quiet clean changes which were the trigger in the past. She won her class on a 66%
I hope this helps some other mares and owners make some decisions… personally if I ever had a mare I would consider regumate for (and I’ve owned countless mares that I evented and now dressage and never needed regumate in the past) I would instead spay…. For me I should have done it so much earlier; but at least my mare is comfortable and happy now and not to mention I have a competition horse.
Lovely, thanks for the update.
Thanks for the update!
Thanks for the update!
After a peaceful summer with my mare on an increased dose of Regumate (12cc daily), last week I think she went into heat and is back to being very spooky. I am inclined to believe it is not a coincidence that the days are getting shorter again now - and this is about the same time last year that she started to fall apart as well. The risks of spaying still seem maybe too high to me but I can’t keep dealing with this
Spooky is how my young mare presents when in heat. I hope I don’t have to go the route of regumate. For now, I can manage it with increase vigilance on my part (and lots of sweat from her), but she’s almost decked me a few times.
I’m assuming the spookiness is pain-related but who knows. It’s been a lovely 3 months with her and I had all these plans for the fall that I feel like are evaporating before my eyes 
We switched from hunters to jumpers this year, which she seemed very happy about, so I don’t need her to stay quite as quiet, but I do need her to be able to actually get to the jumps and she’s suddenly really looky too.
It can be hormone related too, i think? My mare is just more sound reactive. You have to ride like you mean it and make a conscious effort to keep her brain occupied.
My mare would go from very level-headed to jumping at her own shadow about 1/2 days before she showed any other signs of being in heat. She might shy/spook even just being led the short walk in from turnout. We were able to have her ultrasounded with 48 hours of the behavioral change once, and the vet confirmed she had literally just started cycling. Could be worth getting her ultrasounded to see where in her cycle she is, and correlate that to where the behavior started.
I definitely wonder if the hormones make her more on high alert. Or as they do in people, more emotional 
Or that something hurts like painful ovaries etc. We did ultrasound her last fall and nothing looked weird but she had just dropped a follicle - that was when she was on 10cc regumate.
Ooo, good idea to do an ultra sound now. I know exactly when the change happened because out of nowhere that day she was screaming for my gelding the whole time I rode him (and then her). They do not go out together and in 5 years of owning her she has never cared where he is. It was ODD and only lasted 2 days. Back to not caring about him now so at least she stopped ruining my rides in him too 
I hear you! Another I did was keep track of all the behavioral changes in a planner. And then every repro exam, was able to correlate where she was in her cycle to my noted behavior. And every time, good stretches of behavior was when she was out of heat. My vet estimated that a scary spooking/rearing/striking incident on the way in from turnout was probably the first day of ovulation. It was really helpful in deciding how to proceed with her.
I will add that my mare is way less spooky and distracted since the spay. Still very alert and watchful but less reactive and spooks which used to be leaping, or spin, or bucking, or running are now maybe a jump in place or a twitch. I’d have to say probably about an 80% reduction in spooky and reactive behavior.
I am super happy with the implants done in April. Totally different horse! Both of us are much happier.
Only one mare out of the three I owned ever had the mood swings but she really was not the same horse in summer she was in winter. For a couple of cycles in spring and fall when estrus ramped up and down? Absolutely Awful. Just a witch. Vetted to death, no abnomalties, Regumate very effective April to late August, not so much in March and particularly in September. Mare never had issues in Winter and went med free.
Vet said the transitional heats when estrus ramps down to anestrus in fall and back up in spring seem to bother them more as the hormones fluctuate before leveling out. Makes sense.
@findeight, yep, you just described this mare. So how did you deal with yours?
It’s a lot of time for both of us to be miserable. This spring I was considering asking her breeder if they would like her back as a broodmare because I am just so tired of trying to work through this. I worry about spaying as then she would not have that fallback if it doesn’t work out.
Did anyone try increasing the dose of Regumate to see if that would help? Reading through old threads and I found people giving up to 20 cc daily 
I’m wondering if I bumped the dosage through the spring and fall transition periods if that would help.
Its been long enough that I can’t remember exact numbers, but with the IM injections we ended up at twice the dosage and twice the frequency. When we switched to oral, we were also at twice the dosage. I was going through so much Regumate - my mare still cycled through it.
Yeesh. At this point I would be happy to go through more Regumate if it was the “fix” because this is not fun for either of us.
Agreed! I’d happily give as much Regumate as necessary to stop the cycling.
