Is it true that a mare's first season of the year is ther most troublesome?!

Stella2

New Member
Aug 5, 2001
4,687
1
0
64
North East England
Visit site
The title says it all really. Flora seems to have had a personality transplant, rushing off when ridden (unfortunately giving me a couple of flashbacks to my big accident with Patrick, but she is not Patrick so it was all fine, except I'm left feeling a bit rattled!), swishing tail, hating the gelding who was in the school with us.

I've had her since 30th May last year. She was not like this through the summer and I was mostly unaware of when she was in season or not! But of course I didn't have her for the first season of the year and I had heard that that one can be a much bigger deal!

All opinions and experiences gratefully received.
 
Thanks Gal. It didn't occur to me that it could be a season at first (its still too much winter here), so I got on and off her twice to check nothing was pinching and walk her in hand! Then when she wouldn't stand to be mounted the third time, the penny dropped. So I insisted that she stand sensibly, I mounted, then dismounted, and left it at that. We have a good relationship and she is generally a very willing girl. Someone said that she could just be taking the ***s, so maybe she "should be made ...", but I felt she was really unhappy and I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.
 
Last edited:
My little madam is the same this time of year. She backed into the gelding behind her yesterday and tried to kick him, not nice when you are hacking out on the road at the time. If she is really bad then I put her on Moody Mare for a few weeks which seems to settle her although I don't think it has the same effect on every horse.
 
Wow - I can't believe how much Flora and Bess are alike! Yesterday one of the girls at our yard asked if she could take Bess to the X-country course for a canter. (She has a mad horse so likes Bess for a calm ride for a change). I walked along with her. The top of the course runs alongside the field with the geldings in and they started showing off. Bess did a mad little dance on the spot (not quite a rodeo but close) and you should have seen her tail it was standing upright! We decided to take her away from there to the bottom of the course where she was just walked in a large circle. All was fine for 5 minutes and she just took off, bucking and prancing and cantered off. She went under the trees (not good when she's 17hh), so the poor girl had to duck. She managed to get her back (she stayed on minus stirrups - was well impressed), only for her to go off again. She was a bit shakkn so jumped off to calm down then remounted and Bess walked sedately back to the yard.

We couldn't see any reason for it at all until someone on the yard mentioned she is possibly coming into season. I then remembered that I was told by her previous owner she can be silly when in season although, ike you Stella2, I saw none of it last year even though we had her from July.

I don't think she was unhappy at being ridden like Flora seemed to be, more like she was just full of herself. All I keep thinking is that if it had been me riding her I would have been on my butt on the floor!

I think the best thing is just to be aware that they may be unpredictable over the coming weeks and be prepared for the unexpected. (Does my confidence wonders!)

:)
 
My friends mare is a nightmare for her first season, shes an 8 year old arab and supprisingly is the calmest most reliable horse, you can do anything with her............that is until her first season, she rears, spins, bucks, drops her shoulder suddenly, tanks off, won't let you get on or off again, hates any other living being. You name it and she does it but only for her first season then shes fine the rest of the year, my friend normally just carries on with her but if your mare is really sore I'm sure a couple of weeks holiday wouldn't go amiss. :D

J
 
Thanks everyone :)

Jessey - I was thinking a couple of days, she ain't getting a couple of weeks (seasons only last about 5 days)! ;)

Bobbi - Maybe they're sisters ;) This is not quite what we need for our confidence is it. I was supprised how strongly the accident on Patrick came swimming back to me last night, but then we were going around the same corner of the same school, with the same wall, at the time!

Anyway, I've decided to put her on Hormonise, which is liquid chaste berry. A number of pretty good studies have shown that it is beneficial at stabilising hormones in people as well as animals and its used to 'harmonise' hormones in all kinds of condition including mares oestrus, cushings disease, for rigs etc. I'm going to put her on it as soon as it arrives as it takes a few weeks to work into the system. If it works this of course means that I won't know whether the first season is worse or not :confused:
 
i wouldn't put her on it just yet - i would wait to see the next season. if it is only the first one, is it worth messing with her hormones all year round for the sake of one week a year? and if it's not, you're better off getting her checked out by a vet to rule out anything serious than using unprescribed supplements.
extreme behaviour during seasons can have a number of causes, and you really are better off getting it looked at by a vet if it is an ongoing problem. if it's a mild PMT, then this kind of thing is fine, but this sounds more drastic.
 
Hi Mahatibel, really her behaviour wasn't extreme at all, just out of character. She was full of indignation and making it clear that she wanted the gelding no where near her thank you very much. When I say 'rushing off', it was when she couldn't bear him being behind her and when he was in front, well, she wasn't having that, she wanted to rush past!! But she came back to me every time (it just pushed a past trauma button for me!). Thankfully she certainly wasn't broncing etc like Bobbi's Bess.

As I look back now, she was grumpy with some geldings when I hacked with them last summer, but wasn't sensitive about being ridden. Last night was more a didn't want to be touched/messed about (I've been there myself :eek: )
 
i'd still wait and see. given she was fine all last summer, then chances are this is a first one thing - is it really worth the expense of a supplement, not to mention messing with her hormones, all year round for five days a year?
 
Rio has been acting a bit out of character this weekend, she lunged at Gem when they were tied up together and managed to wind Nat who was standing betwen them, and yesterday kicked out at Nat and Gem as we were cantering along side by side. She also spent part of the hack with her tail cocked arab style, so I suspect it's the same problem. Rio's seasons are usually quite hard to spot, she's not usually one to come in from the field with her back legs covered in mess:D
 
Probably her first strong season of the year.

Peri worked like an angel on Saturday and turned into the B*tch from h*ll for my lesson yesterday - Grr! She then spent the afternoon squealing like a banshee at the horses in the adjacent field - sure sign she's coming into season. She'll be fine if I ride her tonight :rolleyes: and fingers crossed after May there'll be no more seasons :D
 
My 2 mares have been just the same over the last couple of days, Hiedi, who outwardly is a 13.2 extremely hairy coloured cob (but inwardly the pony equivalent of Katie Price aka Jordan) resembled a pogo stick today. I was lunging her in our local outdoor school, when one of the resident liveries came past with two very large, handsome (and quiet - I must add) geldings.

We had bucking and farting, cantering and pogo jumping, followed by 3 or 4 minutes of high headed extended trot, by this time she was sweating buckets and the boys were no where to seen, then all she wanted to was roll - at one one point she almost did, it was only me running at her shouting and clipping her behind that got her back up.

At least mine don't appear to suffer from PMT - they just seem to be raving nymphomaniacs :eek:
 
newrider.com