mare behaving badly- opinions

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sghc88

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I (maybe stupidly I am yet to decide) bought a 6yr old connamara x. When viewed she was VERY green and a bit backy but nothing alarming. Her manners on the ground were/are perfect and she was the sweetest. Hacking she is perfect but turns in to a complete lunatic in the school. Sensitive is an understatement! She turns into the stroppiest pony I have ever met (and I have known a LOT!) She is now also refusing to be caught from the field if she is worked in the school on consecutive days.
It was brought to my attention that she does not appear to have come in to season since I got her at the end of July. We are pretty certain she is not pregnant (she's certainly masking it well if she is!) Could she not be cycling properly?
She is now becoming increasingly grumpy, ears back, refusing to be caught from the field, going to the back of her stable and she has been nothing but doted on cuddled, groomed and fussed over :-( Is this normal? Anyone else out there with the same problem? Any miracle supplements? I'm getting so dispirited
Thanks
 
Maybe she has been schooled and schooled since backed and totally sickened by it. it would explain why ok on hack and unhappy in school and not wanting to be caught if done flatwork a couple of days on the trot. unless she is in pain going in a circle and ok on straight lines, hence fine on hacks. I would give her some time off the school and just hack for now and see how she goes.
 
Do other stuff in the school. Fun stuff, you know, loose work. Teach some stretches for carrots. Not just ridden all the time. She is young and is probably bored.

Disassociate the school = work. School needs to start being about fun and treats maybe.
 
My first guess is that whatever you are doing in the school she doesn't enjoy. Whether that's because she has been schooled to death by previous owners, finds whatever you are doing boring or confusing, or too difficult, or that you ride differently in the school. I'd leave the school alone for now, & just spend a few weeks hacking. Then introduce bits of schooling on hacks. If she's capable of schooling on hacks happily, then it pretty much rules pain out, & means its a mental issue with a school. In which case I'd spend 6-8 wks schooling out hacking then gradually introduce the school again, just a few minutes at a time at first. Fwiw I find its quite common for green natives to not be overly enamored of long flatwork sessions in arenas. When they are still at a stage where they are only able to do basic exercises, ime they get bored quickly. Once a bit more established & you have a wide range of exercises to keep their attention, they're fine. So I tend to do most of the schooling elsewhere, & only do longer sessions in an arena when they are capable of shortening/lengthening strides, leg yield, shoulder in, & are supple enough to do 10m circles & half circles, serpentines, loops etc. I think they are just too intelligent to be occupied by endless 20m circles, going large & changes of rein across the diagonal for very long, even if they aren't ready to do anymore.
 
I have a connie x tb mare, shes 28 this year but the first proper summer I had her, she became a nightmare to catch, because she didn't want to go out! after she put on a lot of weight I got her a new saddle, the saddle fitter found that the old saddle, that she came with had a broken tree, which was pinching her back, so she obviously didn't want to be ridden because she was in pain!

she is fine now, 13 years on!! she has her odd moment when she is in season.

is your mare turned out with geldings? it might be that she just isnt that stroppy so you've not noticed her come into season?
my mares in season trick was to plant herself and refuse to walk out of the yard! she'd go backwards, sideways, up banks into ditches, anyway but forward haha!

mine also has never been one for schooling, anything faster than walk ends up and cantering on the stop. canter ends up full speed leg it around the school!
 
Sounds very sensible, the only issue is the lack of hacking around the yard :-( I can only go round the block, 1 lane to down to the bottom of and back so it's all road work unless it dries up considerably then we're allowed on the couple of fields at the end of the lane! Maybe it's time to find a yard nearer home with better hacking?
 
What does she like doing? (Being groomed, having a good scratch, playing with toys etc etc) You could (aside from the good advice above), take her in the school without tack, and do something she really enjoys - it may help to have her start to associate the school are with a pleasurable experience. Then later, maybe ride her round it once before you go on a hack, give her a big fuss & her 'reward' will be she gets to leave the school & go adventuring instead :)
 
What do you do with her in the school? do you mix it up?
I tend to mix up schooling, lunging, free schooling, pole work, couple small jumps... vary it up to make it interesting for her.
 
kerrieberry2 said:
is your mare turned out with geldings? it might be that she just isnt that stroppy so you've not noticed her come into season?
my mares in season trick was to plant herself and refuse to walk out of the yard! she'd go backwards, sideways, up banks into ditches, anyway but forward haha!

mine also has never been one for schooling, anything faster than walk ends up and cantering on the stop. canter ends up full speed leg it around the school!
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This does sound rather familiar :-P she did get nappy at a few points in the summer although I never linked it to being in season. The school work you describe is EXACTLY her walk = fine, trot= faster and faster until canter, canter = flat out loony around the school! hmmm interesting!
 
@Redeequs She LOVES her horse ball, although rarely gets time to play with it as she makes a racket and 'others' get irritated! Maybe I could take her in the school to play with it :-P she'd need to be on the lunge-line as there are stallions on the other side of the school fence but it may work :-)

@showpony I do try to mix it up sometimes she'll just do basic flatwork, i'll add polework in some days (occasionally being mad enough to go over a small jump that's been left up by someone else!) and lunged once a week, sometimes twice.
Overall it's the school 3 days a week , then hack to the farm at the end of the lane twice a week.
 
Not sure what yours is x'd with but I was considering getting another connie x tb mare a couple of years ago! the spit of mine but 8yrs old and she was also one that doesn't like schooling! and my friend has a mare of the same breed that doesn't do well in the school! I wonder if its a connie thing? where they are strong, maybe people give up and let them get away with it!

if you don't have good hacking I would suggst moving somewhere with good hacking! where I am now is awesome! I've been here 3 years and looking back, I never enjoyed a hack on my mare until we moved here! its 99% off road, in a really quiet village, so less stress for her, and less worry about spinning in the middle of the road in front of cars, which happened often when she was in season!

yours isnt dun by any chance?
 
She's connie x tb and IS dun spookily enough! certainly may have to consider finding somewhere with lots of offroad hacking or we could slowly go crazy! I really hope we CAN get over this school aversion as I was hoping to compete her!
 
Mines connie x tb & behaves beautifully in a school. She just finds basic exercises boring & pointless, she's fine if kept thinking. The walk fine, then exploding isn't particularly a connie trait. It's a trait of any horse that isn't using its energy evenly. So instead of the same energy going into everything, they have stop & start energy, usually going from a dawdley walk or silly jog into a sudden explosion & release of energy.
 
sghc88 said:
She's connie x tb and IS dun spookily enough! certainly may have to consider finding somewhere with lots of offroad hacking or we could slowly go crazy! I really hope we CAN get over this school aversion as I was hoping to compete her!
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haha how funny! I wonder if she was the one I wanted to buy a couple of years go! she's not from the south of england is she?
 
she was from the south east but wasn't brought over from Ireland until Oct/Nov 2011 so I imagine not..... can you remember the sellers name?
 
just double checked when I got the companion and it was the beginning of 2011, so isn't the same little lady!

maybe its a dun mare thing! although my saddle fitter said he's never met a bad dun horse! I couldn't agree at the time and she was dragging me down the road jogging sideways hehe! wouldn't change her for the world now!
 
Update on schizophrenic pony. She actually decided to be a reasonably cooperative this evening! :eek: I decided to put her on the lunge in the school (no pressure :D still in her turnout rug to keep her warm- bridle on though..... I ALWAYS lunge with a bridle!) and she listened! There seems to be no rhyme or reason with her! Am thinking of trying some of the mare supplements any suggestions?
 
The yard doesn't sound ideal. No
Hacking and stallions beside school. I wouldn't be happy with that. Ours are easy but often mares near them aren't and a school isn't really an appropriate place for that kind of distraction imo. Especially if you can't let off lunge because of this, so doesn't sound secure.

Agree with the previous comments though, change it up in the school and hack more. Mine used to love going in the school as lots of thinking. Poles, tyres, driving cones etc to negotiate and do different things around.
 
Mares will not always come into season in winter (too cold). I would get a vet out before you start giving a young mare hormone related supplements, it could be bad behaviour or it could be something internal such as her ovaries (cysts). Get an expert to check her out.xx
 
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