Hormonal support
Q I have a moody mare who struggles to control her hormones. She can be quite aggressive towards other horses. Is there anything I can feed to help with this? Anastasia Parker, Cambridgeshire A Moody mares can be a real handful, so finding a supplement that helps is often the Holy Grail. Mares are seasonally polyestrous, which means they have several periods of oestrus when they are sexually receptive to the stallion throughout the year. There is a period of sexual inactivity in the winter months called anestrus, before they restart the cycle again in the spring, when the day length gets longer. During this transitional phase, a mare’s behaviour may noticeably change as oestrus is erratic. After this transitional phase, when the mare’s cycle settles down to a regular 21 days, her behaviour may calm down again.
Rule out pain
It’s important to ensure your mare’s behaviour isn’t due to any other discomfort or pain, so a discussion with your vet, and a veterinary check-up, is a must. Your vet may also be able to offer some assistance in helping to manage your horse’s behaviour by offering veterinary prescription products that control a mare’s cycle, or the insertion of a marble into the uterus to trick the mare’s body into believing she is pregnant and so therefore stopping cycles. Off-the-shelf-supplement options tend to be herbal-based, and focus on ingredients believed to have calming properties, or those that support hormone balance.