mare bucks in season. last straw! Regumate ??

Perce

Well-Known Member
Joined
17 March 2009
Messages
276
Visit site
I am looking for some positive feedback from people who have used regumate on mares that buck when in season .
Apologies as this is long. 

my mare is a 'serious bucker' for want of another expression. She is also a dominant alpha mare of the yard. We have built up a pretty good relationship over the years; She is ‘fond’ of me but knows I am the boss. She is quite hormonal and can be very grumpy in season and very quick with her hind legs. She wears a red ribbon because of this.

As a youngster she bucked frequently, particularly when asked to do something she did not want to do. After much work we have made huge progress and she has improved massively over the years. She is now rising 14 and bucks only occasionally or in certain circumstances, however they can still be so sharp, fast and big that they are difficult to stay on!

I bred and backed her myself and haven’t fallen off many times, but all except one jumping fall, were because she bucked me off. I did spend a lot of time leading her around as a youngster and still dismount at times to avoid being bucked off, only remounting when she has settled. I did much of the first 2 kms of a trec on foot last year after only just staying on board in the first field. She was in season. A week later we competed again and not a buck to be seen. It was like riding a different horse.

I have a pretty sticky seat so it is not my inability to sit a buck. She can simply do un-rideable ones, that are sometimes intended to get rid of me as her rider!
I believe they are associated with her seasons. When in season she is hyper sensitive to the leg for example, so I believe she is probably as hyper sensitive to things on her back. She is also very sharp so they come thick and fast when they come. Often 6 or 7 at a time.

This time of the year is of course worse. Later on she can be a dream to ride and we can go for months without a single buck.

But 4 days ago she bucked me off on the road! One minute we were hacking in the lovely sunshine. 3 seconds later I flew over her head face first onto the tarmac. We had just passed a tractor at walk (he stopped to allow us to pass)and I believe she was nervous when it drove on again behind her. She tried to jog away from it. I gently restrained her. She bucked at speed and I went over the front on buck 3.

I sustained surprisingly little damage to my face; I have a cuts and bruises, but no breaks. However I hurt my neck and after leading her back to the yard drove myself to the hospital for a check up.I have fractured a bone in my neck. The fracture is merely a crack but 3 days hospitalized in a collar having x rays, CT and MRI scans is enough to make me realize I was very lucky. I have been told it is stable so no collar, but take care and allow it to heal for 6 weeks before further check up, and no risk of impact. Needless to say I won’t be getting back on board her for the 6 weeks. I just can’t risk it.

I wasn’t aware that she was in season (I usually am) but am looking for a cause as this is the potentially the last straw. She has badly broken my arm 15 months previously so I couldn’t ride for 6 months and I am now 50! I don’t bounce so well anymore. Several friends and my family have suggested I stop riding her.

So if we try regumate would this stop the bucking? Anyone had a success story.

My vet thinks this is her behaviour and even if we find a problem that we can fix she will probably still buck. It does seem to be her default behaviour. But I haven’t tried regumate yet because she had improved every year, we had sort of got it under control and worked around it.

I tried Oestress last year with no apparent effect, except exceptionally sloppy poos, so came off it.

But I am desperate, so a point 2 air jacket on top of the body protector I ALWAYS wear and regumate are a possible option. If she does it again I am not sure what I will do….
To be honest I don’t want to stop riding her, I adore her, and she is 13 so could be a field ornament for the next 15 years, but I have a family to think about too.

I also have a lovely youngster that has made me realize that riding can to be fun and not scary!
Other information.

She is a 16hh 7/8 thoroughbred,
They are on haylege for the first time ever .
 
Last edited:
You have done well with this mare . But you must look after your self. Perhaps it is time to cut down her work load and only ride when she is not in season . Sounds like you have a nice youngster to concentrate on.
 
I would guess she develops BIG ovaries - and that many of them might go haemorrhagic. This could cause riding her to be 'painful'and she reacts accordingly. There is also the possibility she's developing a GTC tumour (and if this was the cae, her behaviour will get worse.) I would want to get her ovaries scanned when she is fully in season - by an experienced repro vet.

If she IS developing big ovaries, the best treatment would be to put her on Regumate - to stop her coming into season.
 
I would not get back on her. Sorry but next time it could be worse and is your life really worth it? Try getting the very to ultrasound her abdomen as it could be pcos or something similar. Either way this horse is DANGEROUS whether you like it or not.
 
thanks for replies.
I have re-read my initial post and am wondering if I have made her sound worse than she is?
She was called a ‘serious bucker’ when she was about 5 or 6. I asked my riding instructor how he would describe her as every time I mentioned she bucked to anyone they would smile and say, “oh yes, mine likes to pop in a buck too”, or words to that effect. She is nowhere near the same now (I would have given up long ago if she was) and , as I said, can go for months at a time without a buck. When she does buck there are more likely to be only one, which isn't really a problem.
JG I think her behaviour has improved rather than got worse although the bucks on Monday took me by surprise. They weren't particularly huge, just from a very slow jog and in very quick succession.
I have moved my horses onto haylage as I just couldn't get the hay and since have heard that it can make horses rather sharp? I wonder if that asn’t helped. Anyone else experience this?
She had about 12 weeks off and this was our third ride in 3 days. She was good as gold on the first two and was plodding out happily when the tractor appeared. She is not a horse to be effected by time off on the whole. I can ride her once a week and she will be no different than if I ride her every week so she is great in some ways  as that is more than can be said for some.
Webble - thanks I will have a look at your thread.
I am thinking seriously about the whole situation but I already have a field ornament in her mother. I’d rather not have another. I feel I need to consider any option that will give her a last chance.
In an ideal world I would know for sure that the bucking is connected to the seasons, stop the seasons and so stop the bucking. Unfortunately it it never that simple.
I did phone my vet once I got back to the yard, before going to hospital, and he seemed to think I could waste a lot of money looking for something and still find it is just her behaviour.
Surely there are standard tests or checks they can do to see if a mare is having abnormally painful seasons but , despite much discussion over the years, I have not really had any suggested.
More research, thinking and discussion to have.
Thanks again.
 
all of us women know how painful period pain can be ! I wonder if bute would work he comes into season like paracetomol does for humans ??? Just a thought ? has anyone ever tried it ?
 
Top