Mares - what do I need to know!

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After loaning and owning horses for many years - today I got my first mare.

She's a very sweet little lady - but what do I need to know about mares??

How will I know she is in season? Do I need to give her any supplements to stop PMT?

I'm well used to cleaning my gelding's willy - is there any lady bits I will be needing to know about cleaning!

As you can see I am clueless when it comes to mares! :)
 
PMT :D

Mares are like geldings, some are very very marey, sensitive creatures and some are just normal. Delicia when in season just squirts a lot :O (have fun with that one lol its mank!) So i tend to make sure no other horse can sniff her because she will squeel and buck and fart.

Mares are real characters because they are entire (unlike geldings). I was dees lady bits with warm water and her back legs with horse shampoo. This seems to suit her. Her tail gets washes 3-4 times whilst in season, just to keep her comfy.
 
haha love how you worded this! as black_horse said you just need to wait and see if your mare is a little hormonal or not and address the situation! I know mares on all scale levels from not blinking if a stallion was to wave at her to one who a 'boy' couldnt make eye contact with her or she would attack! I tend to find mares more caring towards you and sooky but maybe thats just my experiences!As for her lady bits I wipe there teets with baby wipes and wipe over areas with a warm sponge! Im sure your going to have lots of fun!
 
My mare is no different from my previous gelding ... well to be fair my gelding was much messier and grumpy :p My mare isn't mareish at all tbh, I can rarely tell when she is in season!! Only thing I find with her is that she doesn't like to be told off or told what to do, you have to be nice if you want anything from her!! Good Luck :D
 
That you will have loads of fun!!!

I have had mares all my life apart from my last horse who is a gelding. I have had hormonal mares to mares I would call tom boys LOL as you could not tell when she was in season!

My SJ instructor once told me that since mares are entire, if you can ride a mare you can ride anything LOL! Nick Skelton once said "A good mare will give her heart and soul for you, a good gelding will do his best!" Great saying.

I would say "You can tell a gelding but you have to persuade a mare!"

Have fun and enjoy her - she sounds super!
 
mturnbull said:
haha love how you worded this! as black_horse said you just need to wait and see if your mare is a little hormonal or not and address the situation! I know mares on all scale levels from not blinking if a stallion was to wave at her to one who a 'boy' couldnt make eye contact with her or she would attack! I tend to find mares more caring towards you and sooky but maybe thats just my experiences!As for her lady bits I wipe there teets with baby wipes and wipe over areas with a warm sponge! Im sure your going to have lots of fun!
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You see, i cannot touch dees teats as she is very sensitive, it takes me around 20 minutes of slowly coaxing her for her to allow me to clean them. She had an infected fly bite on one last year and was a bugger to clean.

One thing i would say about mares, when they work with you, there is no stopping the partnership, when they work against you, god help you :)
 
"You can tell a gelding but you have to persuade a mare!"

How very true! but if you bond with them they will always try 100% for you!

ps plus a bit of oestress when in season!!!
 
My girls are both quite easy characters. They're not that much different from geldings except that every once in a while Doris will come into season and will insist on shoving her rear end in everybody's face to show how messy and desperate for a stallion she is. She is an ex broodmare though so she knows more than she ought to.

The only female problem I've had was that Doris got mastitis from a fly bite one summer which made one of her teat's swell up like a rugby ball and she had to have a 7 day course of antibiotic jabs to bring it down. It was awful. She wouldn't walk anywhere because her teat would bang against her leg.

Apart from that I have never attempted to wash her lady parts. I don't really believe in doing so as I think it can do more harm than good. I don't touch my geldings' bits either.
 
black_horse said:
One thing i would say about mares, when they work with you, there is no stopping the partnership, when they work against you, god help you :)
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So true!!! I treat my mare with respect and she respects me back. She is lovely to handle and brings me so much joy. But my YM is scared of her and has been known to try and bully her or out smart her, because of this my mare hates her and if my YM tries to do anything with her my mare will make her life very hard! She is very loyal to me though and I love her to bits!! :D
 
I think mares are less mareish when there are no boys around. We have two mares that live together and I can hardly ever tell when they are in season. Saffy loves having her teats itched and spreads her back legs apart when I do it, so I do this when I clip inbetween her back legs - makes it much easier :)
 
Yeah if you remember that saying you will be just FINE!

I miss having a mare tbh...my gelding is a star and love him loads but my main mare had much more character and wow could she jump!!! I still have her, she is 22 now and retired (had her since she was 4) and it will be a sad sad sad day when she leaves me for horsey heaven. Had other mares before and during my time with my main mare...all of them characters.

I chose a gelding this time round, just cos I am not getting any younger hee hee.
 
If anyone asks me about my mare I just say

When she is good, she is very very good...... And when she is bad she is horrid!

Na... Not really that bad just a cranky Ol tart!
 
I'd always had geldings before but I've now ended up with two mares. I feel that I have a better relationship with the mares than I did with the geldings and I'm not sure that I would get a gelding again...yes the older one is a bit of a pain when she's in season which seemed to be most of spring summer and autumn last year, but she's not nasty, just flirts and squirts all the time!
 
Only ever had one mare, never again,
First season co incided with spring grass, made her nappy, opinionated and
dangerous, ripped a stable wall off, pulling back from being tied, wrapped long reins round her legs so she couldn't move, wish I had a photo of that one, she looked back at my OH and asked WHAT NOW DAD, she pulled my OH off his feet while long reining her in a forest, literally had to tie her to a tree while she thought about things and to stop her.
Geldings may have extra bits to clean, but give me a gelding every time.
 
black_horse said:
One thing i would say about mares, when they work with you, there is no stopping the partnership, when they work against you, god help you :)
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I think this is true. I had a loan mare and she did NOT like me. :p At first everyone thought I was bonkers, but then all at the yard came to agree in the end. She had me off 3 times in as many weeks (breaking my leg the 3rd time). She bit me on the back and the arm (I still have the scars) and kicked out at me any chance she got. But everyone else who rode her found her a sweetheart!

She was also quite a 't*art' when in season - she was found once with her bum through the fence to the field where her boyfriend was!!

I never touched or cleaned her 'lady parts' (on advice), although my friend used to use udder cream on hers.

But she taught me soooo much, riding-wise! :D
 
Only ever had geldings, would never consider a mare until we bought Mini TX's mare. She is lovely! Maybe we are lucky as she is not mareish at all, when in season she becomes even more biddable when ridden, and more willing, but she is also the slut from hell, squirting and flirting with the boys. However, it does not affect her work, so nothing to really worry about. Her only real flaw is that she can be a diva around feed times, and if she is hungry she can lunge over her stable door with teeth flashing, but I havent known her to bite and all the liveries on our yard know to ignore it.

I would say wait and see how your mare reacts when she is in season. It might be worth asking the old owner what she was like, as I personally wouldnt feed stuff like regumate etc if it was not required.

I would definitely buy another mare after having this one. She is such and honest and genuine little horse. She loves a cuddle and you can always tell how she is feeling by her eyes. Shes pretty dam near perfect in our eyes. Mares really do rock.
 
Wait and see if shes hormonal mine is extremely to the point if she's out with the geldings she is constantly in season and a nightmare. I don't wash her as she doesn't need it so yours might not id wait and see for that as well and go from there good luck they are brill when they work with you
 
I've only noticed my mare be in season once.
Every 3-4 weeks I gently coax the crusty bits off her teats.
Other parts get a baby wipe.
She's not at all mareish - actually I'm wondering is she's gay, she's quite a 'butch' girl!
 
I've loved all 3 of my mares, have 1 now and a gelding. She is very loyal, lovable, impatient at times, full of character and love her to bits. I give her the NAF Oestress all year round and seems to keep a lid on any hormonal stuff. She seems to have a big season during the summer on one occasion only, the rest seem to pass by unnoticed really. Can always tell when shes in season, her wee smells a bit fishy when mucking out. She's not as squealy as she used to be, shes coming up 17 and did have a foal before I had her.

They aren't for everyone and I think you have to have a fairly quiet nature yourself, not be stressy and calm. Be firm but fair.
 
little_critter said:
She's not at all mareish - actually I'm wondering is she's gay, she's quite a 'butch' girl!
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mine too :D when all the other girls gallop over to the boys, tails in the air squirting through the fence, my girl stands still, looks confused and farts.

She's no lady ;)

I've always preferred mares and actively sought one out to buy. I didn't even try any boys :) more of a bond imo
 
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