Why don't some people like Mares ?

Question

What are the reasons for some people to dislike Mares ? Or don't they know the first thing about horse handling ?

Answer 1

What a GREAT question !!

Many people say they don’t like mares, but I think it might be because those people are A. uninformed and B. perhaps have POOR horsemanship skills. You have to be a more sensitive and patient person to get along with females of any species, and why should horses be any different?

What mares want…
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Like all horses, mares are mostly interested in the best things in life – eating, playing, socializing with their friends, and being comfortable. They don’t like to be alone, and prefer certain friends to others, just like people.

They look different from male horses with their less cresty necks, more feminine features, and usually very sweet personalities.

Leadership
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Other things mares have to do include providing leadership to the rest of the herd and their foals such as where to go to eat, when to go to drink, when to rest or sleep, and where to get to shelter. Mares are usually the leaders of the herd, even in the wild, the stallion is not the alpha horse in the herd. People often misinterpret a mare's efforts at leadership as being mean – when all a mare is doing is enforcing the will of the herd for the good of the herd. When they pin their ears, they are using their body language to politely tell the other horse(s) to move or back off. If they actually have to reach out to bite that horse, that simply shows that horse was not respecting the mare's space, nor her polite invitation to move. They rarely have to actually bite or kick to get things done, once a horse knows their standing in the pecking order (hrrmph! They are NOT chickens !) of the herd, they normally acquiesce to their leaders easily.

Estrus cycle
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Mares are subject to a similar hormonal cycle to all other female mammals – the difference from people is that they come into estrus or “heat” about every 21 to 28 days. This means that they are receptive to a stallion for reproduction purposes. It does not mean they love the stallion, simply that Mother Nature has prepared their reproductive tract to be able to maintain a pregnancy if inseminated at this time.

Raising foals
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This is a huge responsibility that many people take for granted. (Just let them have to raise an orphan some time and they will have new respect for how much WORK it is to feed, direct, and protect a foal!) Mares have to make sure that their foals learn all the behaviors appropriate for a member of a horse herd, like manners around other horses, how to groom, who goes first or last in the herd to eat and drink, etc. Much of their reactions (kicking, rearing, spooking) are instinctive since they are prey animals, but the rest the foal must learn from its mother.

Make better mares out of them
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The best thing a person can do to make Mares more valuable is to spend time training, riding and playing with them so they are good partners to their humans. If they understand what you want, they will give it to you. Make them stand out in whatever their discipline is – get points and ribbons on them so that they have a job to do and are more valuable both to you and to any potential buyer. (That guarantees to keep them out of the viscous cycle of killer buyers). That will also help you determine if you should breed your mare later on – if a Mare can’t cut it in the performance ring, maybe you shouldn’t think about breeding her.

If you want to make better potential mothers out of them, you should spend a lot of time with them working on ground manners and interacting (grooming, feeding, relaxing, petting them) with them, so that when they have a foal it will have a more positive opinion of humans by watching the Mares – every time your mare comes to you when you call the foal is learning to come, too! You should spend a lot of time getting your Mare used to having her vulva rubbed in case you have to help her with the actual birthing, and touching her teats like the foal will when it is born so the Mare doesn’t kick at him from the pain, especially if it is a maiden mare.

Mareish behavior
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Sometimes people think that mares are overly sensitive or “witchy” during certain days during their estrus cycle. A lot of this is uninformed stupidity and anthropomorphism to people, but sometimes it is valid. Fortunately for Mares and their owners, there are several management strategies for helping the Mares get over it. There are some mares that get a tumor on their ovary that makes them VERY aggressive and dangerous to handle, like a stallion – these mares should be spayed.

- The first is to be patient with them, maybe they are a little more sensitive that day. Do you feel wonderful every single day? Probably not. Try grooming them more and giving them time to focus on the task you want them to accomplish. Don’t get into a fight with them over the task. (In other words, don’t blame their hormones for YOUR bad horsemanship !)

- The next is to use a hormonal regulator to prevent them from coming into heat – this is common in show horses and essentially is a method of temporarily spaying your mare using chemistry. (I’m sure you can understand – sometimes at a show Mares will be looking at the same stallion that makes YOU catch your breath – and you don’t want them stopping to raise theor tail, squatting to pee, or generally not focusing on their job !) There are herbal products that may or may not work for you, and there are proven drug products (Regumate is the most common) that you would get from your veterinarian.

- The last is a surgical procedure that is being more and more commonly used in mares that are either not good breeding prospects, injured, or the person just wants to enjoy the mare and not have to worry about the emotional rollercoaster of their estrus cycle. Spaying a mare requires that the ovaries must be removed either thru a flank incision (makes a 4 inch scar on the flank) or thru the vagina, or for mares with a tumor on the ovary that makes them dangerous.

Choosing a stallion
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Horses do not mate for life, they mate to produce offspring. However, they have opinions, too. Since humans are usually making (often poorly informed – whatever happened to breeding for the quality of the feet and legs?) the breeding decisions for the Mares, about to whom they will be mated, this sometimes leads to problems, especially for hand breeding. If they don’t like that stallion or he scares them, they may not tease to him, or stand to be bred, maybe you should consider Artificial Insemination ?

Please choose a quality stallion to breed your Mare to, the best you can afford – not just the stallion that lives down the road. There are over 50,000 horses a year that cannot find a good home and go to slaughter, and for every one of those, there is 2 or 3 more that are standing in the back of someone’s home – unwanted, unkept, neglected, and hungry.

Do not breed your mare unless you can take on the responsibility of keeping up with that foal for LIFE – that is the only way to ensure that it has not become among the lost and lonely.

Is your mare an OUTSTANDING example ?
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One last thing - Come on, people! NOT EVERY MARE can be an excellent breeding prospect. Be choosy. If your mare isn’t going to improve anything and has obvious faults – please don’t breed her. Way too many people have mares that can’t be used for show or performance due to injury or poor conformation, etc. and they just throw them out to be broodmares. This is irresponsible !!!

Answer 2

They can't handle changes. They've been around bad mares.
Mares are wired a little different. You tell a gelding; you ask a mare and discuss it with a stallion. People that want to tell a horse to do something and poof it's done will have problems with some geldings too. But a mare asking (with the only answer being ok) makes a difference. Mares will work their hearts out for you once you win them over. Some riders actually PREFER mares because they will dig down and give that little bit extra if you deserve it and have earned their respect. I know a polo rider who wanted mares - he felt they were tougher than a gelding and with the position he played he was right...he had tough no nonsense mares and they just didn't push. If he told them they could out maneuver and outrun the other horse they believed they could and did their level best to do so. He had a connection with them and they trusted him - they were a team not a rider on a horse. Geldings didn't stand up to that.

Answer 3

I have a mare now and have owned two in the past they can be tough to handle sometimes, but have great personalities. These are the horses that have given me all of the stories. Just because a gelding will do everything you ask when you ask,does not mean that you can't make a mare to do the same. Personally i like them better. :)

Answer 4

I work with, foal out, tease, and breed an average of 60 mares a year and I love at least 95% of it. I love most of my girls, however we do get a few who are b****y ALL the time. But ya just take care of them the best they'll let you and go on. And it's not poor horse handling, just bad breeding temperament-wise. Most of the mean ones are Storm Cat mares, so yeah. But even the sweetest mare can have mood swings during her cycle. But we all do. Give me a filly or mare anyday over a psycho stallion or a placid boring gelding any day.

Answer 5

Because when they come into season they can be moody. Not all mares though, I've owned two and never had a problem. Personally I find mares to have more character.

Answer 6

I love mares. They have far more personality than geldings and have never owned a bad mare. But i do know a few crazy chestnut mares

Answer 7

I adore mares myself...but a lot of people seem to think they get horrible during their heat cycle. I have been around mares who do act off when in heat, BUT, I think most people are just misinformed by other people who are misinformed. :-) My worst mare really only does one thing that annoys me: when you ride her and she's in heat, she'll keep trying to get near all the other horses, lol, but it's easily corrected; I'd never sell her because of it. I personally love my girls.

Answer 8

Mares can be moody during cycling, just like women! Geldings are usually always the same .....

Answer 9

PMs....

but im a girl, and sometimes i get moody too, so i understand completely. i like all kinds of horses, there are goods and bad of every breed, and gender. i have met wonderful and crazy stallions, i have met wonderufl and crazy geldings, and i have met wonderful and crzy mares.

Answer 10

Its not they are disliked? They are not preferred because they come into season. This makes them moody. For this reason most people choose a gelding.

Answer 11

They are scared of Horses