Pushy, strong mare, please help!

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Miramis

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Hi, im hoping someone can give me some advice. I bought my mare last summer. She is 4 years old (5 in june), 15.hh coloured mid weight cob. I have recently backed her and she is a complete gem, really easy to do and taken everything in her stride, never put a hoof wrong, however...

The last few days her ground manners have become problematic, barging at the gate , fence walking, just generally stressy. Then sunday and yesterday my friend was putting her horse out and she just flattened her and her cob and flew out the gate. This has caused problems with my friend and i and we have had a bit of a row this morning over it
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(we have made up and both want to find a solution).

Any suggestions on how to deal with this field situation. She is so focused on escaping that raised arms etc has no effect, what do we do???

Also what could be causing this sudden stress? Could she be in season??

Diet, could that be the cause too? She is fed top line cubes (she lost condition after weaning foal 3 months back and is now looking great), Alfalfa and sugar beet. Can anyone recommend a better diet?

I have ordered Vitex Agnus Castus to try too.
Much as i love my stroppy mare, i really dont like her at the moment.


Any other suggestions or exercises that can improve her ground manners and ultimately our relationship which is becoming a bit strained. I actually feel a bit stressed out with it all today
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I suspect she's coming into season... in my experience the last season of the year are a particularly hormonal time for mares and I'm using the same logic about the first, one of my mares stopped coming into season last oct/nov and instead become very hormonal around the time she was due in season, it was strange for her as she's not usually that hormonal when she's in season???
 
It sounds mostly hormonal and will probably pass. You could change the sugar beet to speedy beet or Qwikbeet, if grass is starting to come through this would be a good time to make the change - you can then measure her weekly and adjust the cubes (or change to a grass cube) if she needs to drop a bit of weight
 
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How much grass is in the field? What time does she go out and come in?

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They have 3 pretty large parks to roam, all ungrazed last summer so plenty of grass, not the greatest quality just now as its been under snow for months!!!. They do get hay put out each morning which is usually only just finished by the next morning. She and the others all come into the stables at 9.30 am for a few hours for a feed and hay etc. (they are'nt stabled at night) but its once she's back out again that she seems desperate to come back in..and at this point she's got a full tum!!! and inbetween this she's pacing the fence.

Has anyone any suggestions on what my friend can do when my mare tries to barg through the gate as she puts her horse back in??? squaring up, raised arms etc doesnt put her off at all. I can help her when im around but she's worried about turning her own horse out when im not there
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cheers, Ang
 
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