Have you tried one of the body heat reflective coolers on her (Back on Track, Draper, etc.) before you ride? 15-20 minutes pre-ride makes a big difference for my mare in the winter.
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@GreyDes I have not but I am definitely up for trying! I ride her with 2 quarter sheets on cold days because the poor thing does not grow any hair. Now I’m wondering about the back on track quarter sheets too 
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I use a BOT exercise sheet AND a Shires wool mix exercise sheet in the cold (AND BOT exercise boots, with Fenwick leg wraps under them and Fenwick Pastern wraps) (AND a BOT poll cap and a Fenwick Face Mask with Ears.)
I remember riding in the cold when I was younger and the horses needed to MOVE to get warm, and to get their muscles loose enough for work. I cannot ride those shenanigans any more and the horses I ride seem to think that the BOT and Fenwick stuff are adequate substitutes.
And I can start my 9:00 AM ride, often with a cold North wind, 25F on up, with a sedate walk as the horse happily huddles under his butt blankets. He seems to APPRECIATE having warm ears too.
I also use a Fenwick Western saddle pad that covers his loins. It just helps him get warmed up more quickly. Fenwick no longer makes the Western pad but BOT makes a Western pad and I am sure that a cold, stiff horse would appreciate one under the saddle and warming up his loin muscles.
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My older, should know better horse hated being alone in the indoor. I eventually just planned to ride when someone else was or would tie up my young horse for company. Could she settle more with a calm buddy hanging out in a corner?
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So, a couple of things to consider about this - the contents of your post and “easy to handle” are somewhat contradictory. You may mean easy to handle on the ground, but realistically you have to factor in that you’ve described her as explosive when you are riding her, and a grumpy mare-ish mare. Those are a tougher sell than an easy gelding, and there is a lot of sales competition in Florida right now, with more arriving in January for the circuits. So, if you decide to send her to Florida to sell, bear in mind that the mare-ish qualities may make it not as quick to sell as you might think, and you would have to price accordingly for it, because all things being equal, the buyer is going to pick the easy gelding unless there is something that distinguishes the mare. Prices are high and lots of things are selling, but you have to keep in mind that the same reasons you would be selling her might keep it from being a quick flip. That said, I still agree with those who say life is too short to keep pushing through with one you aren’t really enjoying for months at a time, and have to worry about being safe on.
One of my friends with an opinionated mare has opted to pull the mare’s shoes and give her the winter off every year, and that has worked well for them and has the mare looking great well into her late teens. But, they are in the south, where you only lose 2-3 months, so that doesn’t sound like an option for you, unfortunately. Which is why again I’d go back to it not being the right match, because May through August is not a long enough good phase!
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@AmmyHunter right, definitely would not consider selling her locally the way she is right now, as all the reasons you point out would not be fun to market! Florida would be the hope that she would return to her summer self in the warmer temps, but it would definitely be a gamble to send her south and have her continue to be her winter self 
ETA: I would like to find a way to make this work but I am trying to be reasonable that maybe it’s just not possible. I’m lucky that I do not pay board or maybe it would make a decision to sell easier if I was writing big checks every month of the winter.
Maybe she hates being clipped. If you keep her another winter maybe try not clipping her.
But it sounds to me like she might be happier in a warmer climate. Where did she live before she came to live with you?
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Maybe a dumb and obvious point on my part, but she sounds really, really cold, especially since she doesn’t grow a coat. I agree with not clipping her. It sounds like you just can’t get her to settle to do enough real work to get warm, and our own bodies tense up in the cold. Even 40F for some horses isn’t warm.
I wouldn’t be opposed to using ace on a moral level to get her to settle and work through her issues for a session, but can ace increase cold sensitivity? (If you use anything I’d definitely check.)
Is she more settled when heavily blanketed?
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Keeping her on Regumate all year adds up…and it doesn’t sound like it really helps when its cold for months on end. Getting something that doesn’t need year round meds might justify sending her south and investing in a Greenie who is the same horse year round.
Honestly, it sounds like she’s miserable where she is so don’t feel you owe her anything if you sell. If anything, you owe it to her to get her into a more comfortable place where she can thrive year round and make somebody else happy. And you wont have to dread going to the barn as I suspect you do now and thats no good for either of you. Also suspect she scares you and that’s no good either.
Theres nothing to prove by keeping her.
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When my mare was young and we were living in a colder and wetter climate (its still cold and wet here but better) we had to work through some similar issues. A few things that helped us
- 24 hour turn out with a friend. The limited turn out was a no go. She didn’t grow much hair (and still doesn’t) but she was much happier and calmer just coming in for meals. She would gallop around like a lunatic and eventually calm herself down.
- I bought a very large heating pad and would put it on her back for 15 or so minutes before tacking up. This really helped loosen her up.
- Mare Magic and SmartPaks ultra calm.
- I still take full advantage of allowing some good riding college kids hop on over winter break when they are home. I hate the cold!
I’m sure that would definitely help, but her winter self is part of her personality - sending her to Florida wouldn’t eliminate the need to tell the person selling her that it has been an issue and she would do better in a warmer climate, if you want to set her up for the best chance of success. Good luck, that is a tough situation when you do like the horse, but it sounds like you could both be happier if a change is made!
Another dumb question, but are you so far up north that there are heated indoors you could ride in?
I have an “annoying to ride” mare, she doesn’t make me feel unsafe but she is genuinely exhausting. Worse in the winter. I’m convinced she has an old injury somewhere that flares up in the cold.
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Just want to echo what a few folks have said about not body clipping. My current horse grows a decent coat, but he’s sensitive and thin skinned. This is my third winter with him and during the past two, he was quite wild. He was also body clipped. I figured I would give not body clipping a shot this year to see if it helped him and it really has! He still has hints of freshness, but he has been leaps and bounds better this winter than the previous winters.
I also realized that I had been under blanketing him. I’ve previously had horses that would stress out and rip their clothes off if they got too hot, so I had learned to be more conservative when blanketing. My current guy wants to be very toasty. I do believe that bundling him up more has also helped him come out more relaxed.
Lastly, I got him a soundproof ear bonnet that we use during rides (plus ear plugs for extra soundproofing 
). So far this year we only have the rare scoot due to hearing sand hit the indoor wall which is a great improvement. I also think he appreciates something to help keep his ears a little more warm.
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We’ll give it a try pre ride sometime before you either 1) get hurt or 2) give up ownership of the horse. No need to do 100 laps on the lunge line then wonder why you have to call the vet to treat the lame horse. The horse gets the ace, but it works on the rider as well at the same time. Everyone chills out together. Breaks that vicious circle of each of you expecting the worst, being tense, and bouncing off each other. As things improve, cut down the dose.
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@awaywego +1 on the don’t clip - she doesn’t like the cold. I wouldn’t either if I were in my skivvies, lol.
Have you tried talking to a vet to see if she can live on Trazodone, Perfect Prep, or some other sedative/calming solution? It sounds to me like she’s a danger to herself and others and you may need some outside assistance in the form of meds to get through it in one piece one last time and then try to make a plan in the Spring to move her onto another home before winter of 23/24.
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My younger gelding was an unpleasant, explosive drama llama in the winter. I accidentally discovered that he was just cold. I’d bought a new quilt, 280gm, and couldn’t resist putting it on him, replacing the old 180gm blanket, and suddenly he was his pleasant summer self.
My working theory is that the low level work his muscles do to keep him warm makes him tight and maybe even a bit sore. I can see it in how he moves on the longe, and the change once he’s warmed up. If he got cold the night before he’s going to be unhappy even if the temperature has warmed up by the time I come out in the afternoon. I know he needs a long, easy warm up on those days.
That said, I have learned to blanket him to keep him happy and the bad days are rare. It takes a lot to make him sweat so I tend to blanket for the cold temperature (my other horse gets blanketed for the high) and err on the side of more insulation. A full, insulated, neck rug really helps, and means less insulation is required in the blanket.
I don’t clip, or do a minimal clip (apron, low modified trace - which leaves the belly hair unclipped below the straight line between elbow and stifle).
For context he lives outside in Eastern Ontario, with below freezing temperatures Dec - March (we can be frozen from mid November into early April if we have a long winter). The nights are cold enough to be a factor October into May. When the spring days are too warm for blankets I have put his blanket on before riding my other horse, and found the 1-2 hours enough to warm him up enough to be pleasant.
I found magnesium helpful for his anxiety (which may or may not have any connection to the cold muscles) and I supplement vitamin E and seen a number of things improve (again, may or may not have any connection to the cold muscles). His coat growth became more normal with the E.
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I think erring on the side of overblanketing might help some, but I think if she does not grow much coat and you have to ride outside (or deal with an indoor but no turnout), you still have many months of trouble.
I was just thinking about this on very general terms today regarding a friend’s horse. If the horse needs a certain program or certain environment and if you cannot or don’t want to provide that for whatever reason (like, you and she can’t just spend 9 months in Florida together), then it’s not a match. No matter how successful you may be when you are in the right situation. And if the good times are only 3 months out of the year, that’s a long time of misery for both of you.
I think she’d be happier living somewhere that can accommodate her needs better and you will be happier with a horse that can handle your winters better.
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Thanks y’all. A lot to think about here. I spent yesterday afternoon doing some storm prep and thinking. Incidentally, it was the 2nd day in the row that I walked out to the field and maresy was standing in her huge grassy field eating the bark off a tree. That is an unhappy or frustrated horse! So I put out the mini with her - the Princess and the Pea(nut) 
Zero drama. I’m hoping that maybe having a friend(ish) will help on that front anyway.
Definitely possible that she is chilly! She always feels quite toasty blanketed but she definitely also doesn’t run warm. She has a hunt clip that I am sincerely regretting now - we had a really warm early fall and I was still showing so it was necessary then. She still feels like she was clipped yesterday and from last year’s very half-assed chaser clip I gave her I expect her hair won’t come back til spring so yep, we are stuck with it now. Last year and this year are the first times I clipped her at all, and I’m thinking she wasn’t as terrible before these past two years. I didn’t clip in 20-21, because, well, 2020 and we were staying home - we also had a ton of snow that year and I barely rode so who knows what that would have been like. Winter 2019-20 I had shoulder surgery and she spent a few months just hacking out with an upper level event rider - also unclipped.
@greywithcrhome, are you me? that pretty much nails it: I don’t feel unsafe, but it is exhausting/unpleasant. Also for me this year I can only ride during the day - my lights are out of commission - so this means I am squeezing in rides at “lunch” and I have another horse to ride and then I end up spending all my time with her and being like WHY DID I BOTHER at the end of it.
@drop_shot are you me too? lol. My other horse runs super warm and has destroyed so many blankets in his attempts to free himself that maybe I am doing the same thing - underdressing the mare now.
@AAHunterGal @NancyM - I have a paranoia about IV ace shots so I will only do IM, and then the timing of that gets tough when I’m trying to squeeze in a lunch time ride. I was actually thinking about giving her Trazodone as an experiment - I just got it for another horse and thought I’d give her the lowest dosage and see what we have. Perfect Prep did zilch for her. She’s not really dangerous - definitely not to others, mostly to my sanity.
@IPEsq I think you make a really good point, something I have thought about a lot over the past few years - actually not particuarly about this mare but my gelding who is definitely happier in a big busy barn than home with me. It’s always been a trade off to have him happy at my trainer’s barn - and a big drive for me - or struggle with him hating being ridden alone at home. I’ve made it work but there have been many tears of frustration along the way. Now he has so many weird health and maintenance issues that it’s really not even up for debate that he will deal with being home where I can be super vigilant.
What was she like hacking out with the upper level eventer?
If she’s not growing a coat and she’s been exposed to many hard winters, that could be a sign something is “up.”
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