Horse's back possible problem also related to gelding mounting mare.

[loveemyhorse]

Hey,
I have a mare and my sister rescued a gelding. We kept them separated when we got the gelding (Jack) until we did get him gelded. He was not even a year old when he was gelded. He has started to mount our mare and he is now 2, but my mare (Rosie) is not supposed to be in heat, but Jack is still trying to mount her. Big problem she is 12.3hands and he is closer to 16 hands. We have started separating them and it had been a week so we put them together to see what would happen and the SECOND they were together he got on her so we separated them again. Today I went out to ride her and she bucked when I put weight on her sometimes she backs up, but never something this bad. I am worried he hurt her back. Should I just wait until spring shots to get it checked out or do you think it needs attention now? Also if you know why he is doing this that would be great! P.S. Jack is not proud cut.

 

[Theresa_F]

I would get back checked out sooner rather than later.

As he is young, it may be that he is playing rather than interested in her as a sex partner. My young gelding often "mounted" our old clydesdale in play - he has no interest whatsoever in sex. He would mount him from behind or the side and drum Cairo until the old man had enough and bucked him off which then resulted in a rough and tumble. Cairo was 16.3 and Stinky was then about 14.2 so no harm was done.

He did this until he was 4 and came a cropper - he did the same to our young clydie mare when she arrived and got the wrong day. She is never mareish, but this day she squirted at him and backed up and said come on big boy.

He squealed and ran away in horror and kept sniffing himself in total disgust and never did that play activity again with her.

I think you need to seperate them as even playing is going to cause problems due to the size. Do you have another youngster of a similar size your chap could go out and play with?

 

[teddyt]

I agree he could be wanting to play and definately get the vet to check the mares back asap

 

[Birker2020]

Some horses can be true rigs which means they have retained a certain amount of testicular tissue by accident when gelded, others can be false rigs which means it is all in their mind despite being sucessfully gelded. A blood test can tell the vet how much testosterone is present in the sample. There are drugs out there to curb sexual appetite in horses, my horse was given depo provera which is a female hormone derived drug but I would not recommend this as we lost the horse a few months later from a suspected heart attack and couldnt really know for sure if the drug had not brought this on. I had to sign a diclaimer from the vet to use the injectable drug as it was not licensed for use in horses but at the time (through a lot of complicated reasons which I havent the time to go into right now) the vet and I both thought it was the only viable solution.

I would agree with others, that your gelding is wanting to play, but it is a hard one. If your horse is genuinely mounting your mare and meaning business then you would expect to see bite marks near the withers and the rugs marked by the shoes of the gelding down the ribs.

 

[loveemyhorse]

Okay thank you very much everybody we are having the vet out on monday to check her back and check the Jacks testosterone levels as well. Thanks =D

 

[loveemyhorse]

Hey everybody,
Vet came out today. My mare pulled her back muscles on either side of her spine because of the mounting. We have to keep Jack and her separated indefinitely. No riding till mid february and she also has to take pain reliefs which makes her a little drowsy its sad, but really adorable. Thanks everybody and the vet said that Jack may just have a little high testosterone levels or it is just a normal amount of drive to...mount her. lol