Aggression in a maiden mare

[charger]

Hello all.....I am hoping that some of you can help give some good suggestions on our next move. I have been breeding horses for a fair length of time and have dealt with many maiden mares, but none have given me the experiences of this past week. Basically, about a year ago I acquired a lovely Rainbow mare who had gotten injured while in training. Completely sound now, we bred her last year and she has been nothing but outstanding for the last year. She was due last Friday. On Monday I was checking her bag for wax development and, completely unprovoked, I was physically attacked by this horse. Biting me in the head and throwing me to the ground, once I regained my severely compromised 'sea legs' I jetted out of the stall. I spoke with our vet school and being that she was a maiden mare, we agreed to have her foal there in case she would show that kind of aggression towards a foal. She was perfect there, delivering a stunning colored colt...I couldn't have asked her to give us a nicer foal. Things went great, I picked her up today and found out that last night, completely unprovoked again, she attacked a senior clinician that was taking her vitals. She apparently picked him up at the shoulder and threw him back into the wall and then wouldn't back down. He was no where near the foal, he was simply listening to gut sounds. Although he wasn't there for me to see the wound, the other vets said it was quite impressive and very eye-opening for him as he is an accomplished horse trainer himself.

So, where do we go from here. I have a lovely mare whom attacks with no warning whatsoever. The foal needs basic handling and care, and unless we keep her tied very short, we risk injury dealing with her. I would love to get another foal out of her, but I am quite confident that I do not want her on our property after this one. We have talked about doing some embryo transfer work and then selling her with the full disclosure of this behavior. We have talked about giving her one more chance at foaling, but do we put everyone at risk who works around her? Will we ever trust her again? The vet school recommends a long term sedative, apparently it is a 1 cc injection which will last up to 3 weeks and should not affect the foal. It is supposed to calm her system a bit and take the edge off. They felt like this might be a good choice until the foal is a bit older. Will she turn on the foal? If so, should we just pull the foal from her and remove her from the barn and get the foal on a bucket? Having never dealt with this before I am at a bit of a loss on how to proceed.

My greatest fear is one of my children getting to close and her attacking one of them. Because of that, she likely won't stay with us after this foal, but how do I handle things until then.

Any advice would be so appreciated..............

[genevieveg17]

Wow, that is scary. I hope the vet is ok.
My first inclination would be to find a nurse mare and have your mare euthanized. First I suppose you could try to figure out what is causing the rage. Some sort of tumor or chemical imbalance perhaps?
If she is just mean then it would be time for her to assume room temperature. What if the foal starts to mimic her behavior?
I sure do not envy your position and am happy that you were ok after your close encounter with her.

[ShowjumpersUSA]

I have no idea how to advise you. I have your mare's twin!! My mare is not a maiden, but she is absolutely the nastiest mare on the farm just before she foals. She tried to kill our stable boy a couple of days ago. We have her on a mild sedative which we give to her just before we start bringing everyone in for the evening as that's when she decides to go berserk. Her baby is due any day now.

The foals our mare has delivered have been wonderful. None of them have inherited their mother's bad temper. I really think she had some weird early years with someone who forgot to let her be a horse.

[Fairview Horse Center]

Had you been checking this mare's bag all along? or was this the first time you had tried to touch her. Is she normally snarky, mareish, ever pinning her ears when being groomed or handled?

[charger]

We had been checking the bag daily. She had been groomed all the time, handled great for everyone, including the vet and farrier, never mareish, ill-tempered, or aggressive towards anyone. This is truly freakish behavior for her and I had said not even a week ago that she had become one of my favorites because she was so easy to work with each day.

[Silly Mommy]

Eeek!!!

I have a mare that is aggressively protective of her foal the first week or so after it is born, but not before!!! This year she was quite crampy (had to give her oxytocin to get the placenta to pass) about 12 hours after birth and I went in to give her some Banamine. As soon as I poked with the needle, her teeth were in my face!!! I wasn't quite expecting THAT reaction, but had her tied "just" tight enough that she didn't make contact. I found out later that my person doing chores that day (who had been warned) went in to pick the stall and ended up getting a chunk taken out of her back. I don't kid about those things!

We are past her aggressive stage now, but I keep the halter on for two weeks, and tie her short to do anything with her or the foal.

If your mare is normally not aggressive and is now sound, I would put her back to work and get her a job as a riding horse with full disclosure that she is a nasty mommy. I also think maybe checking for a physical something (tumor) would be in order. Not sure if sedation will do anything if she is behaving out of some distorted mothering instinct.

[Equilibrium]

I dealt with my first aggressive maiden mare this year. All I can tell you is your can't let your guard down for a second. When you go in to do anything put a rope or a chain over their nose. Just so they know this is how you act. I'll be honest with you from my sad lessons learned, don't let them get away with the behavoir and chalk it up to hormones and say, oh she'll be fine in a couple of days. Because my mare was better after day one and I always said well she'd good for us and great with her baby so she can be a nasty cow if she wants. Well I won't tolerate it now in any shape or form. This mare always pins her ears when you go in to feed her, stuff I have forgiven in the past as I just watch myself and have been in no danger. Well she doesn't do that anymore as I punched her in the nose hard a few nights ago. I am not going around beating the mare but at the same time she has no reason for this crap and from now on every bit of it is corrected. The correction is quick, to the point, and I walk away. It may seem I'm a bit harsh but any person or another animal getting hurt at this point is just not going to happena again. Respecting her wishes and her space didn't work so now she will respect my wishes and space.

Just do be careful and seriously, don't let her get away with any of it. Do what you have to do to ensure your safety. I'm not saying beat the crap out of her, just be confident and any correct any sign of aggression in a quick to the point manner.

Terri

[Indy-lou]

I have only been breeding mares for a short time, but when we began some three years back, my Vet made a point of warning me that ANY mare with a foal could dramatically change her behavior and become aggressive, and that we should always be careful around mares with new foals no matter how docile they have always been. His rule: never get between a mare and her foal. Sort of like never get between a sow bear and her cub. He cited examples that he knew of in previously docile mares. He said that with a new foal, the interplay between a mares instinct and hormones can lead to aggression without warning. You never know how a mare will interpret your behavior. We had a newborn foal that had an entropion (inverted eyelash) and the treatment was to inject penicillin into the tissue around the eye. Of course we had to sedate and hold the foal down to get the treatment done (two persons plus the Vet) . The mare had always been sweet, docile and cooperative, so we paid her no mind (that was the error!), and she was loose in the stall with us. In retrospect, I suppose my mare thought we were killing her baby: she was anxious and PISSED. The next day she spun in her stall and delivered a double-barreled kick that just missed my head. I was shocked. She still holds a grudge 2 years later and demands to be convinced of intentions in advance. I swear horses (especially mares!) forget nothing. I have to cut her some slack since nature assigned her the duty to protect her foal, and for all she knew, we were hurting her baby. She proved to be an excellent mother to her foal: patient and doting on him. He has a stellar temperament himself. I regret now that I gave the mare so little consideration as a new mother.

[Ozzie]

Of course do not think of euthanizing her! Out of whack hormones, she will go back to normal hopefully when foal is a little older. If not, wean early to give the foal a friendly upbringing, and no doubt the mare will go back to what her nature was before being bred.
I do agree not to breed her again.

[Equilibrium]

I just wanted to add too, many of us assume if a horse acts likes this it has to be because they have a brain tumor or something wrong with them. Well since I have given this much thought this past week, I do believe it's best to accept the facts that some horses are just unpredictable and untrustworthy. Putting a nice lable on the the behavoir would make us all feel better and give us understanding. I have always been the type to think outside the box when these situations arrive and to consider all possiblities. And while the odd horse may indeed have a tumor, I've finally accepted some horses can just be plain nasty and untrustworthy. And indeed they are rare too. I think it's a fact that's hard to accept when you care for your mares such as everyone on COTH. You'd be hard pressed to find a group of mares that are adored, loved, and cherised as COTHER mares. To think they may repay you with being nasty and unpredictable is just plain heartbreaking.

Terri

[charger]

This is a very difficult situation for us as we have many factors playing into this. The fact that she threw such a spectacular colt is at the top of the list, as are my own children's safety, and the elementary kids that come in the spring to play with the miniatures and oogle the baby foals. I commend her being a protective momma, but the behavior did start prior to having a foal on her side, which bears consideration on this whole issue. Unfortunately I am a firm believer that there are many lovely horses out there whom produce fantastic foals, thus I will not tolerate any type of dangerous behavior at our facility. There is, in my opinion, no excuse for physical, aggressive attacks on humans, no matter what the situation.

At this point, our tentative plan is too allow her to nurse this foal (assuming she won't attack it), do at least one if not two ETs with her, wean early, and place her in an appropriate living situation, most likely one which isn't surrounded with little children and with adults who are knowledgeable enough to handle her when foaling season arrives. She's such a lovely mare and I would hate to see her not make babies, she just won't be doing it with us. I also think that, if weaned early and avoiding confrontation with her, I don't think the foal will pick up any of this behavior. Bu oh well, I guess only time will tell for sure.

[Donna D]

Put the foal on a nursemare. Put your mare out to pasture. This could save lives and the foal.

[Daydream Believer]

Honestly...if she were mine...I would not breed her again nor take any embryos. What if this unpredictable dangerous behavior is inherited? Do you have any right to ask vets or lab techs to work around her knowing that she has attacked and injured people unprovoked? If she were defending her foal, I'd be a bit more forgiving but that does not seem to be the case here. I agree with Equilibrium....too many excuses are made for this sort of thing. If this was a stallion, everyone would want him euthanized and not bred in case his aggression was hereditary. Don't fool yourself that this mare is not as dangerous (if not more so now with a foal at her side) than any stallion could be.

[Lenny]

There isn't anyone here that can tell you what your mare will do or what it won't do. This mare will most likely be fine next year. Then again there is nobody here that can tell you that for certain. Sandy gets calls for over aggressive mares each season. She has one in upstate NY that she replaces every year, what a producer. It happens, to be on the save side it makes sense to replace this mare with a Nursemare. Then you have no worries about your children getting hurt or anyone for that matter. Takeing drastic measures or even talkng about them at this time is premature. She may be fine next year and if she produces what you say, then it would be worth it to see. Professional people that get hurt working with mares with foals that they don't even know. Well what can anyone say. Should be more careful, yes.

[Dajuliz]

Went through this two years ago with a maiden mare who was as sweet and kind as can be very well handled and shown successfully by children and adults. She turned into a real nasty wench after she foaled. Here are my suggestions from my experience. First, get control of the mare before you handle the baby. My mare was always haltered with a piece of bailing twine hanging from her halter so that I could catch her and put a lead rope on her. I used a lead rope with a chain when necessary. Second, don't tolerate that behavior. Demand respect but don't be cruel. I carried a broken dressage whip with me. Yes, I used it once or twice. It had a sharp end where it broke and as soon as I heard her mouth open that mouth would run into that pointy end as she started to snap. I also would tie string and plastic to it to desensitize baby. Third, limit the people who have access to the mare. I put a blue tarp over the stall opening so that other boarders could not peer at her. She would charge the stall bars and people would jump back giving her instant gratification to her actions. Last, when all else fails try something new. I had to move her home to her private paddock. We weaned baby at about 10 weeks and the mare reverted back to her sweet gentle ways as soon as her milk dried up and remains so til this day. Good luck. Don't over react. Have fun with the baby.

[charger]

Thanks everyone for your helpful tips. I do feel confident that this isn't going to be an inherited behavior as up until one week ago I couldn't have asked for a more perfect mare. The problem is the here and now and how we do what is best for the foal while keeping we humans safe. Frankly, I do not know for sure what direction we are going to take. We have discussed the nursemare, we have discussed early weaning, and many other options. I did make the personal decision though that the mare was not suitable for our breeding farm due to all the small children, so she has already been sold to another breeder who is in a much more suitable environment for dealing with these issues, and she is going to allow me to do some embryo transfer work with her in the future. So my issues are really the immediate situation and what we do over the course of the next few days vs. the next few months. I did speak with the vet that she attacked on Friday and I must say, he was a bit miffed, although they were fully warned of the potential behavior. Anyway, keep the ideas coming...........so far I have nursemare, early weaning, or possibly even a leather muzzle. So far she is just being a mommy with her foal and being a good mom until we attempt anything with the foal and then it all breaks loose.