I think I've finally got Psycho Gwen figured out...
I lunged Coriander yesterday and today at the walk for 10 minutes. Well, mostly at the walk, he threw in a little canter just for fun. I don't blame him, the footing in the ring is really good right now and he's been plowing through snow and mud for a long time.
Yesterday I gave another try at lunging Gwen. She would circle around me once or twice and then stop and look at me, saying "where's my treat?" It's going to take a while before she understands what I'm looking for, but she kept herself to a walk and was very calm the whole time.
Today I had a totally different horse. Psycho Gwen was in. I wrangled her out to the ring with the lunge line but I knew before I got her out there that it would be pointless to try to lunge her. She kept screaming for Coriander the whole time I had him out and then she tried to circle around me all the way to the ring. I turned her loose and she took off galloping and bucking (Once again, WOW athletic. I'll try to video her some day). She would occasionally stop next to me for a treat but then take off again. She ran herself into quite a sweat.
I *think* she's in heat, but I'm used to seeing "hussy" heat. You know: teasing the boys, peeing all over, raised tails and winking. Gwen doesn't do that, she did seem to pee more than usual today but besides that I all have to go on was her being much more anxious than usual about being separated from Coriander. When I track back and look at my tags, the last times I saw Psycho Gwen were right in the middle of the month (February is missing but I don't think I noticed because the weather was so awful I didn't do anything with her in the middle of the month). It seems pretty likely that this behavior is hormonal, I guess I have a mare-y mare. Hmm, maybe I should look into Regu-mate?
Funny, I heard one of the boarders saying that her mare was being hormonal. Her horse is very vocal right now. Regu-mate might be the answer for both of you. :-)
ReplyDeleteThe mare I ride for my lessons gets very vocal when she's in heat too, but she's a bit of a hussy, you need a pry-bar to get her away from the geldings. I'm going to look into Regu-mate. I think it may be necessary if I ever want to take her to shows. Fortunately she's proving to be very regular, I can pretty much guarantee she'll be nutty around the 15th of the month.
ReplyDeleteSounds like fun. It's good you've tracked it and can tell when she's about to psycho out on you. I should probably do that with Dusty. She never gets crazy though just PMS moody. She's such a tomboy that I think it's an annoyance for her. And poor old Sweetie I feel sorry for her at 26 I think she feels enough is enough. She's a little moody too. I think I'm pretty lucky with these two mares. I've seen some much worse with their behaviors.
ReplyDeleteWow, poor Sweetie, you just prompted me to do a search on horse menopause. It looks like mares become infertile when they get older but will still cycle. Poor girls never get a break.
ReplyDeleteGHM, do you have any good stories about crazy mares in heat?