KarlyHT
Well-Known Member
Hi all, just looking for some advice and opinions.
My mare is seven this year and I have had her for 11 months so this has been our first winter together.
Her behaviour has definitely changed over the last two months. She is a lot sharper, a bit spooky and generally feeling very well in herself. But this is fine and I would expect this to a certain degree in winter!
She has always been a bit funny with you touching the underside of her tummy and is sometimes a bit tetchy when the girth is being done up but nothing major. Some days are worse than others. Some days she can be absolutely fine ridden, very accepting of the leg and other days she will buck in protest.
Her stools are firm, she seems happy in herself but is very tense when being ridden at the moment. She is grumpy towards other horses and had a major paddy in the dressage warm up yesterday as another horse cantered towards her! How dare they! The word tense featured 14 times on our test sheets yesterday!
All checks are up to date - she had a brand new saddle in July which has been checked and reflocked twice since including another check last weekend. Back is fine and she has been seen four times by a McTimony practitioner. Teeth all fine too. Feet are fine and there are no other issues.
She is a lot fitter than when I first got her. She is worked at least 5 times a week. Normally 2 x schooling (flat work/jumping/competition/clinic), 2 x hacking including trotting roadwork and fast work in the summer and 1 x lunged in a Pessoa. She is turned out daily from 8am - 3pm (weather dependent!) and is stabled over night. She is fed 2 x day on healthy tummy and sugar beet and ad lib hay.
Her behaviour is not consistent - some days she can be good as gold and then other days not want to go forward, buck going into canter, not wanting to focus on anything, even squealing at jumps she doesn't like the look of!
So is it just winter blues due to reduced turnout and the fact she could do with a good gallop or could it be ulcers, or even hormonal? I know there are loads of threads on this but would really like specific advice.
I have very good instructors and have weekly lessons and the most amazing yard owner and even they can't seem to pin down what the issue is. Is it just mares??
Thanks for reading! Also posted in TR.
My mare is seven this year and I have had her for 11 months so this has been our first winter together.
Her behaviour has definitely changed over the last two months. She is a lot sharper, a bit spooky and generally feeling very well in herself. But this is fine and I would expect this to a certain degree in winter!
She has always been a bit funny with you touching the underside of her tummy and is sometimes a bit tetchy when the girth is being done up but nothing major. Some days are worse than others. Some days she can be absolutely fine ridden, very accepting of the leg and other days she will buck in protest.
Her stools are firm, she seems happy in herself but is very tense when being ridden at the moment. She is grumpy towards other horses and had a major paddy in the dressage warm up yesterday as another horse cantered towards her! How dare they! The word tense featured 14 times on our test sheets yesterday!
All checks are up to date - she had a brand new saddle in July which has been checked and reflocked twice since including another check last weekend. Back is fine and she has been seen four times by a McTimony practitioner. Teeth all fine too. Feet are fine and there are no other issues.
She is a lot fitter than when I first got her. She is worked at least 5 times a week. Normally 2 x schooling (flat work/jumping/competition/clinic), 2 x hacking including trotting roadwork and fast work in the summer and 1 x lunged in a Pessoa. She is turned out daily from 8am - 3pm (weather dependent!) and is stabled over night. She is fed 2 x day on healthy tummy and sugar beet and ad lib hay.
Her behaviour is not consistent - some days she can be good as gold and then other days not want to go forward, buck going into canter, not wanting to focus on anything, even squealing at jumps she doesn't like the look of!
So is it just winter blues due to reduced turnout and the fact she could do with a good gallop or could it be ulcers, or even hormonal? I know there are loads of threads on this but would really like specific advice.
I have very good instructors and have weekly lessons and the most amazing yard owner and even they can't seem to pin down what the issue is. Is it just mares??
Thanks for reading! Also posted in TR.
