My mare behaves like a stallion.

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I have a 9 yr old Welsh Cob mare. I have owned her from birth and I have her mother also. Whilst her mother is a dream to handle, the daughter has always been difficult. She is quite aggressive and threatening. She is also very stallion shaped (very cresty and short in the back). She has never been a mareish mare and you can never really tell when she comes into season.
I have just moved her to a new yard and it has been suggested that she may have a hormone imbalance. They noticed that she smelt the air like a stallion would.

I was wondering if anyone else has had experience of this kind of problem and whether there were any supplements that I could use to help.
 
I have seen it before in a mare who had an ovarian tumour.She was always very dominant and would act in the way a stallion would with other horses.When the tumour was discovered in her case it was inoperable and as the tumour grew her behaviour got worse to the point she actually mounted an in season mare. Sadly she had to be pts in the end.If you think there is a possibility then I would definitely get her scanned to have a good look to see whether there is anything unusual going on.Firstly though can't you can get her hormone levels checked by a vet through bloodtests? That way they can tell you how best to proceed
 
could just be because she is a welsh cob mare!
especially if she has always been difficult and a bit sharp.

what are you feeding her?
i have had cobs for years, in that time i have had a handfull of calm quiet mares, the rest have there eyes out on stalks and tails up over thier backs on a handfull of sugarbeet and chaff
 
spike123 said:
I have seen it before in a mare who had an ovarian tumour.She was always very dominant and would act in the way a stallion would with other horses.When the tumour was discovered in her case it was inoperable and as the tumour grew her behaviour got worse to the point she actually mounted an in season mare. Sadly she had to be pts in the end.
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There is only one sort of tumour that causes stallion like behaviour and that is a Granulosa Theca Cell tumour. It actually produces testosterone - and mounting mares isn't the worst of it - in some cases it's the first symptom that is seen!!

I don't know why the mare you refer to was considered inoperable - it's not particularly 'complex' surgery - if the tumour is small, then the ovary (and tumour) can be removed via the vagina. If it's too big for this procedure, it can be removed via a flank incision and if it's HUGE, it needs a mid-line incision and is rather more expensive!! A friend's mare had one done via a flank incision - full recovery. A GTC tumour is NOT malignant.

First step for OP is to arrange to have the mare's ovaries scanned by a GOOD repro vet!! The appearance is fairly conclusive - one ovary will be very enlarged - and the other will be smaller than normal and show no normal 'activity'. A hormone assay will confirm.
 
We have a mare who has had an ovary removed, she had agressive upredictable behaviour and was very insecure about leaving the yard, the ovary was the size of approx where you put your thumbs and forefingers together. You can't even see the scar where it was removed from and it was apparently fairly routine type of surgery. We found out as she has a nosebleed and while she was at the vets I asked them to scan her ovaries as I had a feeling something was wrong - the nosebleed was nothing but the scan showed a very obvious problem!!
 
OK, This will probably sound crazy!!
As cattle breeders, you occasionaly get a heifer (young female) who exhibits bull like behaviour.
Usually you get a feeling that something isnt right with the heifer after a while.
But, perhaps, the more usual way of finding out is when you get them pd'dby the vet (pregnancy diagnosed)

The female is usually twinned with a male in utero.
Its only male and female twins that are affected, ie 2 females are ok or 2 males are ok.
They have various reproductive organs missing. Not always obvious.


I really dont know if this occurs in horses, but def does in bovines.
 
knockandy said:
OK, This will probably sound crazy!!
As cattle breeders, you occasionaly get a heifer (young female) who exhibits bull like behaviour.
Usually you get a feeling that something isnt right with the heifer after a while.
But, perhaps, the more usual way of finding out is when you get them pd'dby the vet (pregnancy diagnosed)

The female is usually twinned with a male in utero.
Its only male and female twins that are affected, ie 2 females are ok or 2 males are ok.
They have various reproductive organs missing. Not always obvious.


I really dont know if this occurs in horses, but def does in bovines.
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As far as I know, freemartinism doesn't occur in horses (although I could be wrong). Possibly because twins are so rarely carried to term in horses, as I believe it's related to hormones from the male twin in-utero?
 
I had a visiting mare a few years ago. Nice 3yo who was always causing trouble at home (with experienced owners) squealing at the other horses, and would grow 2-3 inches if she could touch another horse. We did try her over the teasing board, but she was pretty evil and would have killed if she could get near to our lad. As routine we scanned her, and where her ovaries should have been was a testicular mass. The only solution for this filly would have been surgical removal which the owners decided against and sadly sold her on.

I would suggest you get her to an experienced stud practice, don't waste your money on a local vet. Good luck.
 
My 5yr old Welsh D is a madam. She spent the first 3 1/2 yrs of her life in a small herd then a year just with her mum. Her mum was very dominant and would push and shove my girl around. Mine has picked up the push and shove behaviour of her mum and when she first went out with new horses thats how she acted and if they didnt move she backed it up with squels and back legs!
I have seen her lift her lip smelling things. But I know she has had her ovaries checked as previous owner thought she was in foal so had the vet check her out. She wasn't in foal and vet said everything was normal inside.
When handling her at first she kept 'trying her luck' but I was just firm with her till she figured out the rules and now she is fine. With her I think she has just picked up her mums behaviour. Her mum was a sweetie for people to handle but with other horses was very much in charge.
In your case I would save money on supplements. Get the vet to check her out as it will give you peace of mind :-) then take it from there I think there is a herb called angus cactus or something like that for stroppy mares but if you decide to go down the supplement route you are probably best talking to someone who knows what there on about.
 
JanetGeorge said:
There is only one sort of tumour that causes stallion like behaviour and that is a Granulosa Theca Cell tumour. It actually produces testosterone - and mounting mares isn't the worst of it - in some cases it's the first symptom that is seen!!

I don't know why the mare you refer to was considered inoperable - it's not particularly 'complex' surgery - if the tumour is small, then the ovary (and tumour) can be removed via the vagina. If it's too big for this procedure, it can be removed via a flank incision and if it's HUGE, it needs a mid-line incision and is rather more expensive!! A friend's mare had one done via a flank incision - full recovery. A GTC tumour is NOT malignant.

First step for OP is to arrange to have the mare's ovaries scanned by a GOOD repro vet!! The appearance is fairly conclusive - one ovary will be very enlarged - and the other will be smaller than normal and show no normal 'activity'. A hormone assay will confirm.
Click to expand...

She wasn't my horse so I don't know the full details but aparantly when it was discovered it was the size of a large man's fist and the owner for reasons unknown didn't have her operated on. The mare was pts due to laminitis which was aparantly related to her condition,though how that is so, I have no idea.This was a few years back now.The only other detail I can remember is that the tumour had supposedly made contact with her spinal nerves and the mare was certainly unsteady on her feet at times.
 
My mare had very similar behaviour to yours and grew a very cresty neck unusual for her breed. She did not appear to come into season either. She eventually started to mount my other mare and we found she had a granulosa cell tumour.

This was removed under standing sedation and was about the size of a grapefruit. She has had no further problems and about 3 years later she started to have the occasional season. I'm not sure why other horses have been pts as this was a relatively straightforward operation even though the tumour was quite large and she has had no further behavioural problems.

Her other ovary is functioning normally and the vet said I should still be able to breed from her.

I would suggest a simple scan would tell you if there was a GCT and put your mind at rest if not. Good luck.
 
My mare that I owned many years ago used to mount all the other mares whenever she was in season herself - was a nightmare - showed stallion behaviour too. Vet gave her a hormone implant - effectively put her on the pill to stop her coming in to season and from then on she was fine - she had the hormone implant replaced when the effects wore off - i think once a year roughly. Might be worth considering? Good luck hope you get it sorted out.
 
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