When my mare goes into heat, its…bad, to say the least. She slams her butt against the stall walls, and when I say slam, she SLAMS it. It is SO ANNOYING!!! Sorry, back on topic… What do all of you mare people do to suppress the raging female hormones? I don’t want to completely stop her going into heat…That’s just not natural. Supplements, food change, I am willing to try pretty, much anything. Thanks!
Regumate or depo.
Most of what we do with horses “isn’t natural.” If her cycles are that bad, depo or Regumate are good options.
Mine gets a monthly Altrenogest injection. Works great for the most part, every once in a while she still breaks through the hormones though.
^^^ I agree. Sometimes you just have to reach for the hormones to control it …
Years ago a friend of mine bought this big 17.3-18hh WB mare. They never told her she had really strong cycles. I don’t know if she got super crampy or what but my friend was very fortunate that we boarders were around this day, as we heard “Help! Help!” from her stall and the mare had pinned her against the wall and was squeezing her really hard and she was trying to push her away and was pounding on her as hard as she could with the 1 arm that wasn’t pinned between her and the wall. It was SO scary - yelling and waving our arms did nothing - we had to grab a pitchfork and stab her with the tines to get her away from my friend. She did try Regumate and it made it better but didn’t alleviate the issue 100%. She ended up selling her as a broodmare - the barn didn’t want her to stay as she was a liability to the staff and no one wanted to go in the stall with her to lead her out or clean her stall if she was in it. It wasn’t malicious in any way - all of a sudden you just had this giant hulk pushing you against the wall and it only happened when she was in season …
You can do the Regumate implant if you don’t want to handle the liquid daily …
I had a mare that was more grumpy and spooky and I tried every herbal supplement on the market with no success. I didn’t opt for Regumate as she wasn’t dangerous or that unruly. As she got older the heat cycles became less and less of a problem. As others have said I wouldn’t hesitate to put a mare on Regumate/Depo if her cycles were causing her discomfort or made her behavior unmanageable.
My mare is on regumate. She is much happier with herself now. She had strong cycles that made her just miserable.
Regumate. There is anecdotal evidence that soy based feeds may exacerbate the problem.
I have a now retired mare that was the same way. I never used hormones, just knew that when she was in season she’d have marks on her side from pressing HARD into anything she could, pretty much all my gates are bent from her pressing into them. I did breed her, and it was awesome not having to deal with her cycles, as soon as she foaled and came back in I was like…oh yeah, that sigh
My daughter had a cranky mare and she put a marble in. Worked like a charm for her. I know it doesn’t work for every horse but it sure beat messing with meds all the time. She put it in in the spring and took it out in the fall for two years and then things got better and it wasn’t needed anymore. The vet expenses were a lot cheaper than using meds too.
The marble worked for my mare as well.
There is anecdotal evidence that soy based feeds may exacerbate the problem.
This. My mare would be cranky, screamed constantly, and would slam and rub herself on everything, and squirted CONSTANTLY. I took her off a soy-heavy feed and that made a big difference. Age has certainly helped, also.
I never went the Regumate route, just tried raspberry leaves and progesterone shots, but those didn’t make much difference. She was really bad only one or two days, and those days I would just leave her be content in her pasture. It wasn’t worth the fight for a bad ride.
my mare was never hard to ride, which is why I never did much to address it. Contrary to “most” mares, my best rides were when she was in season! she was a sensitive/reactive mare and in heat she’d get almost lazy lol!
She’s 23 and still just as bad as ever.
Mine just got stupid and distracted, peed everywhere, winked at everything. Not mean, just extremely blonde, dumb schoolgirl. Chasteberry extract fixed it, I hardly notice when she’s in heat anymore.
My mares never did this. And the mare that Cloudy is, uh, married to, don’t ask how this happened, does not do this. She simply waits till they are in the pasture and then she makes him put out. (He had many girlfriends before he met Hattie and all those mares simply waited till they were in the pasture and then made him put out.)
When I was showing my trainer wanted my mare on Regumate. I didn’t feel that it addressed the problems of spookiness and irritability. After I quit showing, I tried my mare on a moody mare herbal blend and it did the trick. Minimal spooking. I can barely even tell when she is in season. Because of the success of using it, I tried it on my younger mare. I think it made her worse. I really didn’t want the expense of Regumate, so tried her on Mare Magic. Her problem was that she was extremely cranky when she was in season. The Mare Magic has worked well for her. I can still tell when she is in season, but no more crankiness.
Getting mine spayed next year to make her happier. She’s fine to me when in heat but she’s miserable.
I order straight raspberry leaves from Herbs4Horses. She gets a 1/3 cup every day. Costs next to nothing, and she is now in a mixed herd - used to lose her mind if she was anywhere NEAR a gelding when in heat.
Ok, guys…Thanks!!! Not really sure whether I will do regumate or not, but thanks for the suggestion. She just gets really sensitive when she is in heat to…:lol:
I think you owe it to your horse to try to find out why the behavior issues if they’re major, and my mare has convinced me more thoroughly of that.
When in heat, my mare gets very anxious/panicky, sometimes belligerent, and generally doesn’t know how to respond to how she feels. She is still good under saddle, but when she’s uncomfortable it’s hard to convince yourself to even get on - I do think riding helps her, though. She’s also ok with me or my trainer or in her herd when not being ridden - but no one else can handle her or go in her stall.
It’s not every cycle, but it happens a lot. Her body language told us there was discomfort, and we had her ultrasounded twice to make sure everything looks normal. Both times she was double ovulating with BIG follicles, which we figured was why. I used oxytocin which would keep her from ovulating for 2 1/2-4 months, and she was the same every day until she came back into heat. The lack of predictability and the fact she had to come back into heat and be so uncomfortable again convinced me to try something else. We tried depo shots, and they settled her mentally but didn’t appear to resolve any physical issues, and we actually thought those may have been worse. Last time she was in heat we had another ultrasound, and she had a 54mm follicle (35mm is viable.) The vet was able to tell that time that her follicle actually gets wedged between a ligament and her pelvis and pinched. OUCH. Nothing wrong with her, that’s just how her internal organs are shaped. So since depo doesn’t stop them developing a follicle (neither does Regumate, apparently) it wasn’t stopping the pain. We went back to the oxytocin, but I may try a marble early next year and see if it works for her.
Spaying is NOT an option because some scar tissue forms, and we wouldn’t be able to control if it formed in such a way it was rubbing in the area which gets painful 24/7.
Anyway, point being - if you are able to determine if there’s a problem, hormones, or even a healthy horse with internal conformation causing the discomfort, you can then target your attempt to solve the problem based on that horse.
[QUOTE=AmarachAcres;8257661]
Getting mine spayed next year to make her happier. She’s fine to me when in heat but she’s miserable.[/QUOTE]
I’ve long wondered why we don’t do this more often. According to what I read, modern surgical techniques make it pretty safe.
