Aggressive mare help!!!

Unfortunately alot of off the track tb's are like this as most are moved from pillar to post, fed massive amounts of hard feed and very little fibre and often come from high turn around yards where they are just another number and not treated as most of us would treat a pet.
I would treat any tb off a racing yard as if it has an ulcer - it will do to some extent, so feed probiotics - like a couple of spoonfuls of live yoghurt in her feed, keep her feed simple for a while to give her gut time to repare itself - it may never totally.
They are quite often screwed up mentally as they have had so many changes from very early on and no stability in thier lives - some are save-able and some are not depending on how long they have been in the racing industry - they basically become institutionalised(sp!?). Give the TB rehabilitation lot a ring they may give you some advice as they deal with horses like this all the time.

Please what ever you do do NOT breed from her - if she is this bad now she could be very dangerous with a foal - it is not worth risking your safety or that of a foal - the last thing you want is a vicious foal that has learnt all the bad things from its mum - which it will for certain so you end up with 2 loopys!
And if you are having problems getting her to gain weight she may have gut/stomach damage from her racing days so she will have problems getting in foal and providing enough to keep herself and a baby. Give her a few years to settle and bond with you, if she does turn around and start behaving normally then maybe breed if you are set on it. Ours took a few years to totally normalise themselves, and one of ours is still not quite right and is very clingy to the others and we have had her for 6yrs! We have had 2 others which we bought from small yards and they were 2yr olds so not totally screwed up and only took a few months to settle. The other was a stallion who was 6yrs old and totally institutionalised who could not cope with normal life or other horses - all his behaviour was exaggerated and totally odd and quite often aggressive not to us though, we gave him over a year - he didn't change so we had him pts, even the tb rehab people advised us to.
Just make sure you put your safety first! Good luck!!:)
 
evie's mummy - I want to say a massive well done! :D It is often very difficult to manage horses who express aggressive behaviour, and I am so glad that you have chosen to be sympathetic and listen to what your horse is saying, rather than bullying her. That first step seems to have made such a big difference already - so thumbs up!

Ditto capalldubh

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Hi I'm new to the forum and just wanted to say that I have had similar problems in the past. I'd thoroughly recommend keeping a 'behaviour' diary. make a note of feed, weather, turn out conditions etc etc. You may find that there is something triggering the behaviour that you're not aware of. It worked really well for us. Also - make a note of her seasons (or lack of them) I thought mine wasn't in season but my vet says that the behaviour in mares can change due to 'seasons' without any physical changes whatsoever - and can happen even more so in young mares that have been used for breeding. It's a bit like a teenager - their hormones are all over the place and are even more disrupted if they've given birth.

Hope that helps
Tabitha,
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