Temperament Change

[Carol Singing Dawg]

Our maiden mare foaled six days ago. All seems well, excellent mum, very proud and possessive of her boy, but fine with me as usual.

Until tonight. She actually turned her backside on me and made some threatening faces when I walked past her.

Could this be just a rush of hormones, foal heat, or could it be something else? Anything I could give her to relax her a bit? She's usually such a nice girl.

 

[AmyMay]

Protecting baby.

 

[Equi]

Could be she/foal is being messed with a bit too much and just wants humans to back off for a bit. She’s being a good mum so unless you need to get to her let her be.

Just to add I assume she was checked after and there isn’t any signs of infection/mastitis? Foals thriving etc?

 

[Caol Ila]

My experience of breeding is n = 1, and it wasn't planned.

About six days or so after foaling, my mare hit her foal heat, and then decided she would not be caught. She hadn't had a great deal of handling before she foaled, but she had been catchable. I gave her time and just hung out in the field with her, but she remained uncatchable for about three weeks. The hormones can make some of them very protective of the foal.

 

[Pinkvboots]

It can be pretty normal she is just being protective some mares don't like alot of the attention a new foal can bring.

 

[Gloi]

My sweet mare turned into a ferocious creature who went for anyone who went near her or her foal. Fortunately this only lasted about three weeks and she was back to being friendly with people although she still would let no other ponies near for much longer.

 

[Parrotperson]

As long as she’s seen the vet and it’s not an infection or other Illness then perfectly normal.

 

[Carol Singing Dawg]

Thank you all. She's in great health, was more like her old self at dinner time this evening. Foal is not getting too much attention, just a nice scratch when he comes up to investigate me!