Hi Dr. Beth,

My 5 year old Clyde mare has turned from being the easiest horse in the world to a witch. I am addressing the training aspects, but wonder if I should have the vet look for certain things? She is very skin sensitive to being harnessed, even fearful around her back end. We've also had an incident in a show arena where she reared sideways away from the crowd. Are these just training glitches? I'd like to know what to rule out vet wise. Thanks so much. She's up to date on all shots and worming.

Two things that can really affect a horse's behavior are hormones and type/amount of feed. First of all I'd want to be sure she is not getting a high grain diet, but rather a high fat and fiber diet. And then I'd suggest getting your veterinarian to check her for abnormal ovarian activity. If it is not dietary or hormonal then it will be a lot harder to address, but I am of the opinion that problems like this more often have a physical basis than being attitude problems. Good luck!

For what it's worth, around this time most years my mare has a rather pronounced personality change. Sometimes she becomes quite aggressive, almost stallion-like in her behavior! I've had the vet check her and nothing's ever wrong, it's apparently like Dr. Beth suggests, hormonal. It lasts several weeks, then she goes back to her normal more docile self. You just have to watch out while it lasts! Hopefully that's all it is with your girl.

Thanks Dr. Beth
She is on the EPSM diet, Strategy and oil, grass hay. How would they check for hormonal activity? Is that just a blood test?

Cheryl, you might want to try gradually replacing some or all of the Strategy with something even lower in starch and sugar. There are a lot of newer feeds out there, including Purina's new WellSolve products. Be sure that you are adding 2 cups oil per 1000 lbs of horse per day to try to rule out any muscle issues. As to ovarian hormones, the first thing would like be palpation of her ovaries for any enlargement that could indicate a cyst or tumor. As Tina has said, most times you don't find anything abnormal but it is worth checking, just in case.

I haven't heard of Well Solve - I'll have to look for it. Thanks.

Hi Cheryl,

A few years back my Perch/x mare who was in training had a similar issue. After 6 months of training and riding, one day preparing for a routine session, she just exploded when I hit the saddle. Chalked it up to a bad day until it happened again with my trainer a few days later. Although she was very green, this was completely unlike her personality up to that time. Started looking for things with the vet and eventually found that she had a cyst attached to one of her ovaries. This was found with an ultrasound and treated. So it's worth taking a close look as Dr. Beth suggests.

Thanks to all. I had the palpitation and ultrasound on Friday. She had a 60!mm follicle. Just to be sure we re-checked her yesterday (monday) and she had ovulated, everything normal in there. So, it's back to the training drawing board.

Well, this ovarian activity could very well have affected her mind. If so you should know soon. There are some products that might help if it a hormonal issue (Hormonize is one that comes to mind) so if this continues, talk to your veterinarian about this as well. Thanks for letting us know about these results!