Mare in luurve, what would you do?

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ZarasMum

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My mare is part of a stable herd of 4 (4 and 5 year old gelding horses and an 18 year old pony mare, all mine) on about 5 acres separated from the next group along by a strand of electric tape on a similar area. Last Wednesday an ancient mare was added to the neighbouring herd, and ever since my mare has been totally, but TOTALLY, in love with her. She ignores the others in her field, when the mare is taken out of the field she stands at the fence and calls and calls until the mare returns. I took her out for a lesson last Friday and she was SO unsettled, calling constantly, she felt like an unexploded bomb in the school.
By Saturday she was obviously in season, and has been so ever since.

I haven't even taken her out of the field since. I have another lesson on Friday, and am out of the country from next Tuesday til Monday. Should I just forget the Friday lesson and leave her to get on with it until everything settles down (hopefully!) when I get back? Or should I be trying to work her regardless (i.e. just GET ON with it!)


Incidentally, it's not just her, the 4 other horses in the field containing the new mare are very unsettled too (they are all geldings - my other 3 show no interest whatsoever ...)

What should I do? And why should my MARE be so in love with this mare???
 
Both interesting suggestions, thank you! I would never know if Ellie is my Zara's old companion - mother? Zara is a shire x and 16.2, Ellie is (I think) an IDxTB so you never know. What a lovely thought :) They are both dark bay.

The male hormone thing also sounds like a real possibility - in fact the new owner said similar when she said that maybe she had stopped producing female hormones so smells like a man lol! Would also explain why one of the other geldings in her field is not very interested in her - there have been a couple of mares in with them in the past and he normally 'herds' them around the field ...

ETA: don't think she has cushings (certainly not diagnosed), her coat is quite thin and fine.
 
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... but would you attempt to take her out and work her, or give her some uninterrupted time in the field to settle back down?
 
My mare sometimes decides she is in "field love" with others, she is a very vocal mare and usually calls when someone comes in or out of the yard (whether in season or not).

I just ignore this behaviour and her seasons and work her as normal. It's amazing how quickly they settle if you don't let it bother you and insist they must keep their mind focused solely on you during work time. I see people getting more and more wound up by it and that just seems to make their horses worse. Horses have 23 hours a day to stand and moon over each other, I don't think insisting on one hour's focus is too much to ask.
 
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