Mare mounting another mare?

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jaijai

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A mare on our yard has been displaying unusual behaviour towards other mares. She has become difficult to catch and has become particularly attatched to another mare, grunting whenever she sees her very much like when a stallion sees a mare. When her owner went to fetch her in today she found her trying to mount one of the other mares. The geldings and mares are kept in seperate herds. Could this be a hormone imbalance? Has anyone seen this before? :confused:
 
Ive seen this happen before when geldings and mares are seperated, ive also seen geldings mounting other geldings, although i really dont know what will cause them to do it, prob is hormone imbalance
 
Yes i've seen geldings mounting each other but never heard of mares displaying this behavoiur. Think i'll have to google it as I am curious now!
 
I've seen it quite a few times. I have a couple of mares who mount other mares and geldings. One is a herd boss and when her female herdmates are in season she always mounts them. The other is close to the top of her herd. Both have bred me foals in the past and all the other mares I've known do this have all had foals previously too. There aren't any complaints from the other horses who have her mounting them and they all seem to enjoy it so I see no harm in it.
 
Horses may be like cattle in this, cows & heifers often mount each other ditto bullocks. Probably it is the same thing driving this mare. Some individual animals will always have a stronger drive to mating behavior than others.
 
burge said:
Mares showing stallion like behaviour can be a sympton of ovarian cysts.
Click to expand...

You're in the right area - although mares don't suffer from cystic ovaries in the same way cattle do. Mares tend to get cysts in the uterus itself and they're a damn nuisance when they've the size of a 12 day pregnancy.

Mares mounting mares - particularly if accompanied by bad or aggressive behaviour - is likely to be due to a Granulosa Theca Cell tumour. These tumours are not malignant although they can be painful and get large over a period of time but their "interesting" featue is that they produce testosterone - so the mare may exhibit stallion-like behaviour.

The ONLY treatment for this type of tumour is removal - but it's not particularly risky or 'major' surgery. A GTC tumour is diagnosed with a combination of ultra-sound scanning and blood assays.
 
My mare has always mounted other mares in her field when they are in season since I have had her (10 years). She head of the herd and keeps everything in check. I always thought she would grow out of it but at 22 yrs old she never has. I spoke to my vet and he said it probably due to her being the one in charge and just being turned out with mares So taken on a stallion type roll.
 
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