Question: My 8 year old gelding kicks, seemingly for no reason at all, whether he’s in his stall, out at pasture, being saddled, or even while being ridden. Why does he do this? It’s driving me crazy!

Answer: All horses will kick sometimes, as it is one of their most powerful ways of sending a message. Horses use kicks to communicate and as a weapon. Both uses can be dangerous to humans, and it’s best to get to the root cause of the behavior.

Question: We recently purchased as a stallion that’s only been bred by live cover. We think he would be a good prospect for A.I. Will he will use a mounting dummy? Mounting dummies are pretty expensive, can we build our own?

 Answer: Most stallions will accept a breeding dummy mount, but it may take a little patience and practice for him and you, if you’ve never handled a stallion when he jumps a dummy. I recommend starting with some very practical advice from the University of Pennsylvania’s “Stallion Handling for Dummies: Key Features of a Breeding Dummy Mount”. The article includes tips on what size and how to make your own breeding dummy mount, how to train your stallion to mount, and common pitfalls encountered. Talk to your vet, talk to other local farms that use jump dummies, and go watch experienced handlers. A stallion’s trip to the breeding shed is usually only a few minutes long, including time to wash!

Most horse owners that use box stalls use 12 foot x 12 foot stalls for most horses. During the majority of gestation, this size is just fine for your mare. As she gets closer to foaling, usually two to four weeks prior to her due date, it is often recommended that you move the mare to a foaling stall. Foaling stalls vary in range from 11′ x 14′ to 12′ x 18′ to larger.

Why would you increase the size of the mare’s stall before she foals?

If you have a horse sized mare, a 12′ x 12′ stall may not give her quite enough room to get up and down comfortably as her gestation progresses. When she goes into labor, she may also be more active or restless. The premise of increasing foaling stall size is to provide a larger area that is more comfortable for the mare and will reduce the chances that the foal may become pressed against a stall wall as she foals. Most mares foal laying down, and may stretch, wiggle, or roll as they foal. Giving them a larger than average stall just gives them more wiggle room, so to speak.

Question: How do I know my mare is about to foal? Do I have to be there when she foals?

Answer: Each mare is an individual and may show slightly different signs of impending parturition. While mares are usually self sufficient and quite able to foal alone, it is best if you are able to monitor the mare in case an emergency arises. Most mares exhibit physiological signs prior to parturition, including waxing of the teats, enlargement of the udder and teats, dripping or streaming of milk, relaxation of the muscles and ligaments around the tailhead, elongation and swelling of the vulva, in addition to behavioral changes. Daily observation of your mare prior to foaling will allow you to more easily recognize the signs your mare is preparing to foal. Calcium strip tests, which allow you to measure the quantity of calcium in the milk, and pH strips, which indicate the pH of the milk, are sometimes used to aid traditional methods of detecting signs of foaling. Some mare owners invest in a variety of devices to help them determine when their mare will foal, running the gamut from remote cameras to monitors worn by the mare.

Just a note to let everyone know we are going to be changing our hosting so that our pages load even faster for you. We may have a few hours of outages over the weekend while we make the switch, but you can still send us email at info@marebehavior.com.

Question: I bought a 9 year old Halflinger mare 4 months ago. She is an all  around good girl but has a lot of bad in her. I haven’t been able to get on her alone. She throws her head and won’t listen at all. She also tries to run me down or spin in circles around me when I lead her. I can’t get her out to exercise her at all! She is also supposed to be bred, but I’m not certain she is.

The best thing to do is keep good records. I cannot stress this enough. Get to know each individual mare’s estrous cycle, as it will vary slightly from mare to mare, with the average cycle length being 21-23 days with about 3-7 days of estrus. Keep records of when she was bred, and mark on the calendar when you would expect the mare to come back into heat (estrus). If your mare does not show signs of heat (as discussed in previous posts) when you would expect her to come back into estrus, keep watching her closely and tease her if you have a stallion available. Each mare is different and may be more likely to show signs of heat at a certain time of day, particularly if she’s not being teased. Some mares will show to a gelding, standing out in the pasture (like one of my mares), or even to people! Others are are nearly silent and may not even show signs of estrus when the stallion is around. Watch these mares closely, though, and see if they show when the stallion starts walking away. Some mares are intimidated by the stud, but most actively solicit his attentions by showing interest in him nose to nose, lifting her tail and urinating small amounts, and winking (see previous posts for additional information). Start looking for signs of heat about 15 days after her last heat period, as she may show sooner than expected. Mares need to be bred close to the time of ovulation, which takes place 24-48 hours before a mare goes OUT of heat. Horse breeders often select for characteristics other than breeding efficiency (such as conformation, quality, show or racing record, even color), so horses have the lowest breeding efficiency of all domesticated farm animals.

A farmer walks up to his daughter’s Shetland pony, who has been nickering softly. He asks, “Do you have a sore throat?”

The pony replies, “No, I’m just a little hoarse!”

Question: We bought a 4 year old maiden, halter type, Quarter Horse mare a few months ago. The next day, the mare savagely bit me as I reached across the stall to pet her face. This mare is a monster! She squeals, pins her ears, opens her mouth and shows teeth, and is just miserable. We know the previous owners and are told she never behaved like this before. We have two studs, and are not beginners, but we’ve never encountered a mare like this before. Any ideas here?