Gelding throwing tantrum and napping towards mare in season

TiddlerandButters

New Member
Nov 9, 2020
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So I went into the school with my gelding and a friend was in there with her mare who was in season. From the minute we got in there he was like a homing beacon towards her and was stropping and napping badly towards her. He normally schools fine when others are in there with us. It got to a point where he had a huge tantrum and got his head down and span round, resulting in me on the floor. He hasn’t done this before. He has recently had a brand new saddle fitted, dentist and back done. This was new behaviour towards the mare….. anyone else have randy geldings who refuse to work around mares who are in season?
 
If he's never behaved like this towards mares before its unlikely a hormonal issue (i.e. rig) and more likely just to do with the time of year, the autumn flush of grass and reducing light making him feel a bit over excitable.
 
If he's never behaved like this towards mares before its unlikely a hormonal issue (i.e. rig) and more likely just to do with the time of year, the autumn flush of grass and reducing light making him feel a bit over excitable.
Yeah I did wonder if that could be it. “October horse” a couple of weeks early! I just wondered if it might of been because she was quite obviously in season? He does whicker and get his manhood out around other mares but normally hack with the other mares. Not really schooled with many mares before. I’m hoping it was a blip lol
 
Yeah I did wonder if that could be it. “October horse” a couple of weeks early! I just wondered if it might of been because she was quite obviously in season? He does whicker and get his manhood out around other mares but normally hack with the other mares. Not really schooled with many mares before. I’m hoping it was a blip lol
If he's normally a bit interested in mares and also feeling fresh that could just have sent his ickle man brain into a spin 😂 I'd think that more likely than it actually being her in season tipping him over the edge.
 
I used to have one who would have loved to have been allowed to behave like that, but since I can be a demanding witch I would put him in a position where he was far too busy keeping up with my demands to have any focus left for the ladies! I will admit there were times when it was a bit hard on him, but he was a big opinionated horse and I would do whatever it took to keep everyone safe if he was about to act up. Harder by far was when stallions or older colts were around, then for everyone's safety I would ask them to get out of the way - out of sight at the very least - while I got my muscle bound "die, die, DIE!" attitude problem out of the way. A couple of incidents and it became routine to let me know if someone was bringing a stallion up for a lesson.

If you have a serious problem I would suggest not riding with in season mares. If it isn't that bad then work on keeping him so focused on you and what you're saying that he hasn't got time to focus on anything else - I used to joke that he wasn't allowed to breathe in or out without my permission and I was the ultimate "it's ALL about ME!" princess 🤣 . Now that may mean that on one 20m circle I would walk - canter - trot - collect the trot - leg yield - canter just to keep him thinking, or change flexions every few strides, or trot - halt - rein back - trot, or do leg yield zigzags, shoulder in to shoulder out. Anything and everything! And as a general guide I'd never do anything for more than 6 strides without an alteration if he was in that frame of mind. But around a stallion even that level of demand didn't work, he was plain dangerous.
 
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