Horse behavior -advice plz

docilefoxx

Tourist
Hello. I got my first mare a few weeks ago, she is small and about 7 years old. She is just about the most amazing beautiful thing I have ever seen. I have been very slow in trying to get to know her and get her used to me. I am very shy. She is starting to come close to me when I appear. I do provide the food and treats after all. haha.

Today she was not coming to me at all. She would move away and pee, then trot around kind of like a goofy idiot, and pee again. Any time I approached she trotted away. Then I saw the *wink*. Oh! she is in heat. OK. Well that is not really important any time soon, I just want to continue building trust. (she has let me brush her once for about 10 seconds) So, what is the correct way to continue building trust while she is in heat? Do I leave her alone, or will she think I don't like her anymore? Do I chase her like a game of tag, or will she think that is hostile? Also, how long does heat last? I really don't want to screw this up. thanks for any advice.
 
Some mares act rather flighty when they're in heat, and have extremely wide mood swings as well. That said she was acting much like a mare who's not quite ready to mate but is far enough along to be teasing the nearest stallion she fancies, which would appear to be you unless there was a stud or gelding around at the time.

I don't advise you give chase, equines play rough in general and in heat mares like to kick and strike, at least not before the two of you understand one another very, very well. Mares are in season for seven days on average, some calm down after the first couple of days and others are completely insane through the whole time.
 
Some mares act rather flighty when they're in heat, and have extremely wide mood swings as well. That said she was acting much like a mare who's not quite ready to mate but is far enough along to be teasing the nearest stallion she fancies, which would appear to be you unless there was a stud or gelding around at the time.

I don't advise you give chase, equines play rough in general and in heat mares like to kick and strike, at least not before the two of you understand one another very, very well. Mares are in season for seven days on average, some calm down after the first couple of days and others are completely insane through the whole time.
Thanks. this helps a lot. I will stay on the shy and cautious side of things.
 
Thanks. this helps a lot. I will stay on the shy and cautious side of things.
Much better to be safe than sorry, or laid up with broken bones. Once you get to know her temperament in and out of season then you can start working out what she likes or not. Other things like if she's been bred before can have a effect on her behavior as well, just take your time and be patient with her, it'll pay off in the long run.
 
update, kind of I guess. I was just out with her again and she was much less flighty. After the typical routine and chores, I just sat for awhile and she came up to me and boop'd me on the nose and we "shared breath". That is a huge good thing, right?? we are friends now? I was soooo pleased and happy it happened! After she stepped away, I gave her a treat and left as to not ruin the moment.

Another question: my property has hot wire fencing. I don't think she is used to it. She took a big long sniff and got zapped. :( um.. now I am afraid to let her roam too far away from the barn. How do I know when that is ok, and she won't run into - through the fence? I don't want her to get hurt. (Also, I would never catch her. :( ) Like, how many times do they get zapped before they figure it out? Is 1 enough and I am being too protective?
 
update, kind of I guess. I was just out with her again and she was much less flighty. After the typical routine and chores, I just sat for awhile and she came up to me and boop'd me on the nose and we "shared breath". That is a huge good thing, right?? we are friends now? I was soooo pleased and happy it happened! After she stepped away, I gave her a treat and left as to not ruin the moment.

Another question: my property has hot wire fencing. I don't think she is used to it. She took a big long sniff and got zapped. :( um.. now I am afraid to let her roam too far away from the barn. How do I know when that is ok, and she won't run into - through the fence? I don't want her to get hurt. (Also, I would never catch her. :( ) Like, how many times do they get zapped before they figure it out? Is 1 enough and I am being too protective?
Answer to paragraph 1. Yes, this is a good thing. I experienced this with a little Shetland mare who rested her head on my arm, I came closer and we shared breath for a while before she decided to kiss my cheek.

Answer to paragraph 2. Sorry mate. I have no experience with horses being zapped. At most, I got zapped.
 
It sounds like you are doing pretty good at becoming closer to her. If you have more specific questions there will be people here to answer them. Broadly I recommend reading a lot of different books on equine behavior. Instead of specific recommendations I would say read a lot. Its not like there is one encyclopedia with all the answers so different perspectives (right and wrong) can help you understand equines better.

On electric fences I will say it varies by horse. The vast majority of horses will respect electric fences quickly. Some will not. Usually I find that if a horse runs through or doesn't respect the electric fence they never will. Once they learn that it doesn't hurt that bad and it doesn't hurt at all if you just run through it there isn't any going back. My mare and stallion lived in an electric only enclosure and weren't much trouble. You should avoid electric only in crowded conditions, tight quarters, and highly trafficked areas like where they eat. Put up a more permanent fence around shelters, gates, and wherever they eat.

They do hurt a lot more than many people think. Try grabbing a metal T post and touch the electric fence at the same time. Shoes are pretty decent insulators and a lot of people have no idea how strong electric fences really are. I did know a horse that would stand at the fence all day and check every few minutes to see if he could crib on it or not. Always knew when that fence had a fault in it.

I like to put a hot wire on top of all the fences horses have access to to teach them to stay off the fence. It prevents them from damaging both themselves and the fence if they aren't leaning on it or trying to reach across for that tasty blade of grass on the other side. Electric fences save horse lives and make fences last longer.
 
"shared breath". That is a huge good thing, right??

Yes horses like to be close to their friends.

It sounds like you are doing everything right at making friends, you have one hell of a girl there.

As for the electric fences it depends on colour. White is a good warning that there may be an impending zap. Metal or orange are much less obvious and seem to attack from no where.

Mares cycle every 21 days. I find there are 12 days off heat, 2 days of silly bouncy pre heat then upto 7 days on heat with varying levels of hormones depending on day and time of the year.
 
Electric fence is good for safety. Getting zapped to them is nothing compared to us getting zapped. If she can easily see it she will learn quickly.

As for behavior. Mares gets firey during their cycles. They can be a totally different horse during that time.
 
Some mares act rather flighty when they're in heat, and have extremely wide mood swings as well. That said she was acting much like a mare who's not quite ready to mate but is far enough along to be teasing the nearest stallion she fancies, which would appear to be you unless there was a stud or gelding around at the time.

I don't advise you give chase, equines play rough in general and in heat mares like to kick and strike, at least not before the two of you understand one another very, very well. Mares are in season for seven days on average, some calm down after the first couple of days and others are completely insane through the whole time.
Great advice!

Also don't underestimate their intelligence, one of the fillies we had would watch me with with her mom... quite often.

When she got older all I had to do was stand on a bucket and she would back up to me.

When treated with love, patience, more patience you can get almost any animal to do something..if they want to do it.

Best advice I can say in a nut shell besideswhat you already got, don't force it.

Just be there, brush, feed, spend time, talk to them.

They(my mares) loved to get a bath. It's a great bonding/trust building experience for both.

If no warm water, do it on a summer day.
 
Spend another year building trust and training ground manners first before even considering anything sexual. She'll learn even in heat she needs to listen and there is a routine.
If she is in heat, she will naturally be flighty and play around, just let her. Bring her food the same time everyday and keep the same routine. bring her treats like normal but if she wont approach you, just leave rather than following her. Don't leave the treats though, take them back with you. she'll decide whether she wants treats more or not.
 
update, kind of I guess. I was just out with her again and she was much less flighty. After the typical routine and chores, I just sat for awhile and she came up to me and boop'd me on the nose and we "shared breath". That is a huge good thing, right?? we are friends now? I was soooo pleased and happy it happened! After she stepped away, I gave her a treat and left as to not ruin the moment.

Another question: my property has hot wire fencing. I don't think she is used to it. She took a big long sniff and got zapped. :( um.. now I am afraid to let her roam too far away from the barn. How do I know when that is ok, and she won't run into - through the fence? I don't want her to get hurt. (Also, I would never catch her. :( ) Like, how many times do they get zapped before they figure it out? Is 1 enough and I am being too protective?
Sharing breath is a really big step, especially if a flighty mare is in heat. It basically says: “I’m feeling a lot of emotions, and my body is on the fritz, but I trust you, human, and not I know you’ll take care of me” keep giving passive, positive reinforcement as you’ve done

The fencing- I’ve been zapped since I was 6 and it is literally shocking. It hurts in the way a rubber band snap might. Do the horses feel it, absolutely, but it’s better than barbbed wire because there’s no risk of bleeding or potential infection. Let her roam, she’s a wild creature at heart and a big beast. It will take her as long as she wants to learn to respect the fence. Unfortunately, it’s one of those things that horses have to just give into against their own stubborn nature. She’ll be fine, they are not designed to harm horses- only reinforce a safe parameter.

Being protective is ok, just remember that she is probably 12 times larger than you, and will feel pain differently. It was described to me as the rubber band snap. If you REALLY want to, you can actually touch the fence and find it’s safe for humans too- shocking (pun unintended) and leaves the area a little sore, but no damage and much safer than barbed wire ever was

Hope this helps
 
update, kind of I guess. I was just out with her again and she was much less flighty. After the typical routine and chores, I just sat for awhile and she came up to me and boop'd me on the nose and we "shared breath". That is a huge good thing, right?? we are friends now? I was soooo pleased and happy it happened! After she stepped away, I gave her a treat and left as to not ruin the moment.

Another question: my property has hot wire fencing. I don't think she is used to it. She took a big long sniff and got zapped. :( um.. now I am afraid to let her roam too far away from the barn. How do I know when that is ok, and she won't run into - through the fence? I don't want her to get hurt. (Also, I would never catch her. :( ) Like, how many times do they get zapped before they figure it out? Is 1 enough and I am being too protective?
Hot wire fence is not a good choice, especially for a nervous horse. I only use it around the top of a four panel fence on my stallion paddock to try to keep the stud from mounting over the fence. My Arab mare intentionally tears it up every time she comes in heat! I would replace that as soon as possible.

I have found that a first flirtation can be risky. So I mimic stallion behavior where he sniffs a mare's tits. I just stand to her side and rub the back of my hand gently against the flap of skin at the front of her rear leg. This simulates a stallion's head. If she doesn't like this, she will strike out in the air, which is fair warning.

BTW, Mare Lover gave some excellent advice.
 
Being protective is ok, just remember that she is probably 12 times larger than you, and will feel pain differently. It was described to me as the rubber band snap. If you REALLY want to, you can actually touch the fence and find it’s safe for humans too- shocking (pun unintended) and leaves the area a little sore, but no damage and much safer than barbed wire ever was.
I mostly agree with what you've said I will add a bit though. I've seen what barbed wire can do to a horse, it's not good. Cows have thicker skin so it's not quite as bad for them, but the first thing I did when I bought my farm was remove all the barbed wire fences and redo the whole place with high tensile plain wire with one hot wire halfway up and high tensile white equiwire as the top strand. So horses and those among us with not the best eye sight, can see the fence from a fair way off, and thus perceive it as a solid obstacle.

Everything is also strained very tight and it should stop all but a galloping horse without any real harm to the animal. The two electric wires make it unpleasant for anyone to push the fence anyway, so most animals here learn very quickly you don't touch the fences and are careful about how they eat around the bottom of them. Mind you I'm running an 8,000-10,000 Volt system. So those that have suggested touching the fence should possibly think twice on my property, unless you've got good well insulated foot ware. I have touched a hot wire and a ground return wire with a direct connection back to the energiser by accident (well no one in there right mind would do it on purpose.) one night while fixing a fence beside a live fence. Sending the current up one arm across my chest and out the other arm. The result was me ending up sitting on my butt on the ground, my heart felt a little funny for about 1/2 an hour and my arms ached for about 2 hours, before I was completely back to normal. But electric is still far better and more humane, even taking into account what I just described which is the worst posslble zap the system could give. Your normal zap of just touching the wire and earthing through the ground will hurt for a second but normally has passed completely after a minute.

Animals are bigger generally than humans, so it takes more to zap them to the same degree, but this is offset because they have extra contact on the ground having two more feet than us. So it is not going to be a pleasant experience for them. It is not supposed to be, that's the whole point. But I always feel sorry for anyone that touches a hot wire with their nose as the main contact point, that is something an animal or human for that matter will only do once, because it is going to be something you remember. Of course if your a alpaca or the like and are covered in electrical insulated fleece during winter, sometimes you can get away with things without getting a shock.
 
IF I'm repeating what anyone else has stated, please forgive. Take a chair out and some treats. Sit and let her come to you. When she does reward her with a treat (e.g., apple bits, carrots, some handfuls of sweet feed or prepared equine cookies). Share 'breath' with her if you're able and be patient. Ensure that you mentally focus on her and how much you want to be close to and love her. There is no other female that walks the earth like an equine. Relationships take time to build and there are no shortcuts!
 
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