Could stress make my gelding act riggy?

[Becca-84]

Looking for some advice. I have a 13yr old gelding - never been a problem with mares before. He came over from Spain in October and has since had to move around several times, had new field mates, lost his lifetime companion when my mare had to be pts...so lots of changes.

The last couple of months he has started being really riggy around other mares. Yesterday they moved onto the summer grazing, and the herd changed again. There was a chestnut mare in with him, who unfortunately, is also in season!! I turned him out and watched for about 15mins to make sure he was ok and all seemed well. Then go up later to get him in to hear he has been chasing her all day, mounting her, chasing her two gelding friends away - really stallion like behaviour, which is so out of character for him. I'm so embarrassed

I ordered some global herbs rigcalm last night after reading good reviews about it, so hopefully that will help, but what could have caused the change? Could it literally just be stress from all the changes in his life or could it be an imbalance in his diet...or something else?

 

[Natch]

Thats interesting, I await people's experience replies. From a biochemical pathway point of view (check me out using big words!) I think it might actually be possible that he is producing more testosterone.

Lots of hormones are made by adding a bit to another, a bit like a ladder, so every horse and person produces more testosterone than will end up in circulation because some of it will get converted into other steroid hormones. Stress can interfere with the proper function of lots of body processes, so my educated guess is that more of his hormones are only getting as far as testosterone. Whether whatever levels of stress he is under happens to be sufficient to cause riggish behaviour I don't know.

Oh dear, was that a geeky but ultimately unhelpful answer??

 

[Ginger Bear]

I think so, I have a 12 yr old tb gelding, had him for 3 years, never had a problem with him before changed herds & a new field mate started picking on him a bit & chasing him, he then became attached to a mare in the opposite field, calling to her, flirting with her, running up & down the fence line. Moved him back to his old herd & the mares were in the field next door & once he was back with his old herd he settled back down & wasn't that interested in the mares & have had no problem since...

 

[Oddjob's Wife]

Had a similar experience, also with a Spanish import. He was fine with his gelding buddy, until we turned my mare out with him. Not only did he spend his life on top of her, but the fighting between the two men got pretty serious so we had to separate them. Unfortunately, the Latin lover then became rather too attached to the mare - separating them was dificult to say the least.

Had a rig test done and it was all clear. Was told that Spanish horses are very highly sexed - don't know if that's generally true, or just as true for them as any other breed?!

Mare sold, moved yards and the lover is out in a herd with other boys now. He seems to fall in love with every horse he's in contact with - even the boys, though doesn't spend time on top of them, fortunately!

Don't sure that helps in any way - I guess my best advice is to separate from mares if possible. Otherwise, ignore the behaviour (it did settle after a while) and as someone pointed out to me, be grateful he's getting some exercise!

 

[Becca-84]

Thanks guys. Relieved to hear that some others have had similar experiences with stressed out ponies. I was a bit concerned as to the cause of the behaviour, but that seems to be the most obvious answer. Hopefully the rigcalm will help and make him back into the sweet, loving, placid pony that I used to know

ETA: Naturally - yes, ever so slightly geeky lol, but interesting and helpful