Dominant mare - advice

Persephone

Persephone

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My mare is the dominant one in our herd, she's not a nasty mare and allI have actually seen her do is move other horses about, normally with facial/ear expressions a feigned snap or a threaten with the quarters. That's it. Every new horse seems to accept this and so far there has been no trouble, indeed we have a nice settled herd.

A 5 y/o thoroughbred gelding has been introduced to the field and I have to say on first introduction she did the same as normal, kept him away from the herd for a while....just normal stuff. She very rarely makes contact with another horse (apart from grooming lol)

All was quiet for a week until TB came in one night covered in bald spots and colicy. Now it has been decided that the bald patches are as a result of my dominant mare mounting and kicking him.

What do you guys think? There were no witnesses, no marks on mine or any of the other horses, so I am pretty convinced he has been rolling and thrashing about in the field.

However this is getting on my nerves now, I'm still getting grief about it and would appreciate your experience with this.

Is it usual for a mare to mount a gelding? I've always had mares and never seen it, but I'd love to know!

(selection box left over from Christmas to the first 5 responders)

xx
 
[ QUOTE ]


All was quiet for a week until TB came in one night covered in bald spots and colicy. Now it has been decided that the bald patches are as a result of my dominant mare mounting and kicking him.

What do you guys think? There were no witnesses, no marks on mine or any of the other horses, so I am pretty convinced he has been rolling and thrashing about in the field.

However this is getting on my nerves now, I'm still getting grief about it and would appreciate your experience with this.

Is it usual for a mare to mount a gelding? I've always had mares and never seen it, but I'd love to know!


[/ QUOTE ]

It's not usual for a mare to mount a gelding - unless she has a Granulosa Theca Cell Tumour and THINKS she is a stallion because of the testosterone this type of tumour produces!

But even if she DID mount the gelding, she probably wouldn't leave marks. My stallion is 17hh, fully shod, AND a clumsy git but he VERY rarely leaves a mark on a mare!

I HAVE seen a colicy horse tear strips off itself, bash its head on the ground hard enough to make the side of his face blow right up, etc. etc. etc. Tell these idiots to get a life!

A truly dominant mare rarely attacks other horses - she just marches up and gives them THAT look!! It's the number 2 mares that do damage to others!
 
What sort of bald spots? TB that No1LGW is companion to regularly bosses her about a bit and nips her and leaves little teeth scratch marks/bit of hair missing. However they're not circular or even but long and thin, where the teeth have gone in and pulled out a line of hair, or scraped the skin downwards, and where she rubs her bum on the tree is more circular with the hair shorter all round where it's broken off.
 
What do the bald patches look like? Are they bites, kicks, scrapes - or literally the hair having fallen out???

I can't believe for a minute that your mare has been mounting the gelding.
 
It's two circular bald spots , one each side about 6" below the whorl you would clip around on the quarters.

Another bald circle right on the top of his quarters. Apparently there was a hoof mark around this one? The horse has a very pronounced bump at the apex of his rump whis is really quite goosey.

The circles are bald and had the odd bit of lymph scabbiness. Interestingly there is no sign of any hair growth coming back after 10 days of being seperated from my mare.

(Sorry for the crap explanation!)

Cheers people. Thanks for the support.
 
Well in your shoes - if this happened 10 days ago - I would just put it to the back of your mind, and simply not worry about it.

My horse is regularly bitten by his field mates. They are very rarely round - if ever. Even a nip bruises the skin enough to cause a raised lump forming, hair loss and pealing of the skin. These marks are often long and thin or obvious bite marks. And they heal within a few days. Round bald patches would not explain your mare 'mounting' the gelding either - as the marks you describe would not be this shape.

Just ignore whoever is doing the stirring. And as the gelding has now been removed from the field and not healed after 10 days, they must be stupid to think they are as a result of some sort of attack.

People just love a good drama don't they???
grin.gif
 
Forget it. They don't know it was anything to do with your mare, because nobody saw anything happen. Herds do get a bit stirred up when new horses go in, particularly if they haven't been introduced properly... which it sounds as if this horse wasn't. In these circumstances it could just as easily have been a gelding mounting the gelding.
 
Thanks to everyone for your comments and advice.

I thought it sounded daft myself but when it's not left to drop you kind of start doubting yourself you know?

My view is that if I, or somebody reliable sees it happening then I will believe it.

Until then I shall take your advice and forget it!

Thanks again, you guys are great.

x
 
i've got a mare that is dominant and introduced her to another dominant mare and it was a nightmare. She mounted her continually for 2 weeks and wouldn't leave off!! Nothing wrong with her btw, hormaones checked etc and all normal. It is a normal behaviour with dominant mares and it is part of them establishing hierarchy amongst the herd. It may or may not calm down. We had to separate in the end as it got quite dangerous with scuff marks on the older ponies mane.......ironically when the said mare was taken away, the other mare called for 24 hours even though she'd been bullied constantlky!! Typical behaviour. But i would separate if possible to save any more hassle!
 
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