Anyone had experience of gelding humping their mare? Advice please?

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Salcey

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We have been at our winter grazing since Nov 1st. It is my friends yard, she has a 16:2 shire x gelding and I have two mares. I have only had one of the mares since April and she has spent the summer with my other mare and never shown signs of any season.
Since being at this yard both mares came into season within the 1st 2 weeks which is what you'd expect. However my young 5yo mare has just come into season again. Her nature does not change at all, but she has started reversing up to the gelding, and the last two days he's been covering her.
He has never been seen to do this before and has always been turned out with mares.
I am concerned about his weight on her back, he's a HW cob and shes a 15hh quarter horse mare. Do you think this is a valid worry?
I tried to leave her in today but the others went mental in the field and she was going mental in the stable so they are all in which isn't ideal.
Any suggestions please.
 
Yes, it's very common behaviour. The mare has a say in this, many mares won't allow it at all.
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Sometimes they don't only do it when the mare is in season, so no point in keeping horses in, and sometimes if the mares really fancy the gelding, they come into season! One of my geldings seems to have this effect on a lot of mares, but he has forgotten what they want him do do, and doesn't mount them.
If you need to keep them together then I'd see if you could get some input from a holistic vet, I've been amazed at how effective some of the homeopathy has been that my vet has sent me. Alternatively you need to split the group. In other words, they aren't doing anything wrong, so to me it would be unfair to keep one horse alone, I'd split the group so that both have companions, just not each other!
 
Yep, I'd be concerned too. I have seen geldings having a little go at mares (my own on one or two ocassions), but not regularly. But I certainly wouldn't want it happening regularly because of the risk of damage to either horse.

Is there any chance of separating the mares and him?
 
Yep my mare (the tart) corrupted a young gelding too!!!..............Chased him backwards round the field till he obligued!!!
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I would separate them, especially if they have shoes or rugs on. My mare got a nasty kick (before I found out what she had been up to and separated them).
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Is there any chance of separating the mares and him?

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If he's only mounting one mare, then why take him away from all of them? They are both just doing what horses do, and normally this is initiated by the mare. I'd split them up, but not have any horse turned out alone.
I've kept mares and geldings together for years, and only once has a gelding mounted, and then only one mare. Both horses involved had rather disturbed backgrounds in the past, the gelding had been kept alone for a long time before i got him. The mare had 9 months box rest as a youngster due to injury. It's often (not always) horses with some lack of socialisation in their history that do this. We split the herd, and the gelding went out with my two year old filly. She put him straight in his place and he never mounted her. That is what mares normally do with a gelding.
 
Thanks
Splitting is not a straight forward option as theres only the gelding and my two mares. The gelding is not happy on his own which is why mine are there as company for him over the winter.

Is there anything to feed the mare that will make her a little less obliging.
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I personally would move her asap but thats just from a bad experience I had and im still paying for it.

My mare got randy with a gelding at the beginning of the summer. He hit her back right on top of her sacroiliac causing a haematoma on top of the joint. She had to have the summer off work and was brought back into work in september after having scans and a steroid injection in her back. In november she still wasnt right and went back to the vets for a different treatment. At the end of this month she can start walk work for a month. Its been a lot of hassle.
 
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