At least a grouchy mare has an excuse beyond “that’s just the personality”. The grouchiest, most unpleasant horse I’ve ever known (we broke him out) was a gelding. He was like that from the second we brought him home - he wasn’t even halter broke out in a field until he was 3. Good looking bugger, just pissed off all the time. Pick his feet? Pissed. Brush him? Pissed. Ride him? Pissed. Comb his tail? Pissed. Give him a game to play for treats? Pissed.
I like mares because I like how workmanlike they are. Geldings play and carry on and that’s great until it translates under saddle. I’d rather have something that is business-only when it comes to riding, no extra curricular activities please.
And, to bring it full circle, even mares aren’t consistent there. Shayney is a gelding in a mare’s body. She plays and screws around and all the other things. Not workmanlike!
Without doing the exact math, I think the farm I board at has approx 75% mares when considering the boarders horses and 50% mares when considering the BO’s horses (many of which are used in a lesson program). I know for certain that the BO doesn’t necessarily have a preference between mares and geldings, but I do know the boarders have a stronger preference for mares. None of us are competitive riders (I don’t think a single one of us showed this summer, either because it’s not a priority or because it would have been nice to but the horse/human was off/lame through the season) and mostly lean towards dressage, but there are a few H/J in the group and a small handful of eventers.
I don’t get it either. And it breaks my heart when I see a mare’s connections write off what is clearly pain language as the mare just being “mareish” or “hormonal”. I think mares are more likely to experience unfair treatment in that regard. Mares seem to be more expressive in their body language and more likely to communicate with you, and that can be misconstrued.
I’m bringing along my own filly-now-mare. I’ve had her since 4 months of age - so she is one of the first horses I’ve owned that is entirely of my own producing (both good and bad), other than 2 PMUs I retrained and sold. The only thing she does that I think is related to her gender, is she is a little too interested in the geldings along her fence line and will swing her butt towards them. It makes me nervous and annoys me at times when I ride by her paddock, but the geldings don’t pay her much mind.
In all other ways she is lovely. I like how attentive and kind she is and how much she wants people to just come and say “hi” to her. I love my gelding too, but I don’t think he watches out for me the way the mare does.
Glad to see so many people love mares. Juat leaves more geldings for the rest of us!
Definitely more geldings than mares in our showing group. But, the two that are there are very nice.
Me? I’ve had two mares (out of 10). The one I had as a kid was a good girl. The one I had as an adult darn near killed both my desire to ride and my actual life. So, give me a big dumb gelding…
Where I board (h/j show barn) has 21 geldings and 17 mares so it’s pretty darned even. It’s always been a very mare-heavy facility.
Growing up mares were very few and far between any place I rode. My first show trainer disliked mares so that was kind of drilled into my head too. In college I spent time riding for a breeder who was a mare person but I still much preferred the boys at that point. It wasn’t until well into adulthood that I had my first amazing mare and finally “got” why people liked them. Now I’m very much a mare person but it has to be the right mare. I think with a gelding, it’s much easier to make a relationship work even if it’s not perfect. With a mare, it’s got to be just the right combo or you’re both screwed. That probably skews people towards the boys. But I love my little girl and wouldn’t trade her sass for anything.
That’s also why a lot of places prefer not to have mares. They make managing the geldings harder.
There are a lot more mares than geldings to be found in rescue. I learned this from working with a local rescue program that collaborates with other rescues. They tend to get mismatched more often, and cause more issues with people trying to keep horses at home due to attachment problems in small herds. They also tend to get bred and not trained, and then have nowhere to go if the situation changes.
That’s interesting to me. I’ve had the opposite experience, although my rescue experience has been via low end auctions and also through ex-racehorse rehoming. Geldings far exceed mares in both situations.
I keep my horses at home. I tend to have either all mares or all geldings. When I have mixed, I have had a few too many mares who entice the geldings to the fence line, then kick the fence. I don’t want my mares to get hurt, nor the geldings, nor the fence! I have limited space for paddocks, so they share a fence line. I loved both mares and geldings. But for farm management, it’s easier for me to have one or the other. Right now I have geldings.
They’re at our barn lol! We’ve got 5 mares and 2 geldings currently, had one more of each when our Trouble Boarders were there. Also have a little newborn filly my sister is babysitting
That very likely does make a difference. We do not really deal with rescues that purchase through auction. Most of our collaborators and the rescue that I do the training for mostly have owner surrenders with a fair bit of animal control/seizure cases.
Why is it that there are so few OTTB mares that go through the rehoming programs? I keep an eye on some of the listings so I know what the market is like when I’m ready for my next horse, and it seems like 90% of them are geldings. Is it just that more geldings are raced, or do the mares mostly end up at TB breeding facilities once their racing careers are over?
Some mares get retained for breeding but the reality is for many rehoming programs and flippers mares just don’t sell as well as geldings, so they don’t often source them.
Good to know! For those who don’t have direct connections with the track but who like mares, do you have any recommendations on how best to find out about those mares that aren’t picked by the programs?
I board two mares, own five geldings, and own five mares and a molly mule. I will admit sometimes the mares can be a bit moody during lessons but that helps riders learn to read their horse and make adjustments.
Through the years I have also had only one or two mares and the rest would be geldings. Right now I am looking for a gelding but it is mares that I keep seeing that interest me.
