Moody Mare, or Something Else? Hormonal Behaviour in Horses
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Sensitive to the girth for a week out of every month. Squealing and striking at geldings over the fence. Tail-swishing, tense, hard to sit on — then perfectly lovely again a fortnight later.
"Mareish" gets used as a personality description when it's usually a physiological one. And some of the time it isn't hormonal at all. Here's how to tell the difference.
What's actually going on
The oestrous cycle: most mares cycle roughly every 21 days through spring and summer, with around 5–7 days in season. Cycling is driven by day length, which is why behaviour often settles over winter and returns as the days get longer.
During oestrus, hormonal shifts can produce genuine physical discomfort — not just distraction. Ovulation itself can be painful for some mares. A mare who is difficult for five days a month is frequently a mare who is sore for five days a month.
Signs that follow a cycle
The pattern matters more than any individual behaviour. Hormonal behaviour tends to be:
- Cyclical — roughly every three weeks, in a recognisable window
- Seasonal — worse from spring through summer, quieter in winter
- Accompanied by physical signs — winking, squatting, frequent small urination, tail held to one side
- Social — squealing, striking, or fixating on geldings and other horses
- Touch-related — flank and girth sensitivity, objecting to grooming over the barrel
Keep a diary for two months. If the difficult days land in a rhythm, you have your answer. If they don't, keep reading.
When it isn't hormonal
This is the important half of the article. Plenty of mares get written off as moody when something else is going on:
- Gastric ulcers — girthiness, grumpiness and flank sensitivity look almost identical to hormonal behaviour, and don't follow a cycle. Here's what to look for.
- Musculoskeletal pain — back, sacroiliac or hock discomfort, especially if the behaviour shows up under saddle specifically
- Saddle fit — mares change shape through the season; a saddle that fitted in autumn may not in spring
- Ovarian problems — granulosa cell tumours cause persistent, escalating behaviour that doesn't settle, sometimes with stallion-like aggression. This needs a vet.
- Learned behaviour — a mare who was genuinely sore once and found that objecting worked
A vet can scan the ovaries and run bloods. If behaviour is escalating rather than cycling, that's the call to make.
What actually helps
| Change | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Track the cycle | Two months of notes turns a vague problem into a predictable one you can plan around |
| Rule out pain first | Ulcers, back pain and saddle fit before you conclude it's hormones |
| Adjust the workload | Lighter, more forgiving work in her difficult window rather than a fight |
| Rethink turnout | Some mares settle beside a quiet gelding; others need distance from the fence line |
| Support the nervous system | Adaptogenic and calming herbs work on the stress response, not just the hormones |
Behaviour is information
The horses I've worked on over the years that were labelled difficult, dangerous or not worth the trouble were, almost without exception, uncomfortable somewhere. A mare telling you something is wrong is doing you a favour — the tragedy is when nobody listens and she gets moved on.
That's why bodywork and internal support tend to go together. A session looks at the whole horse — how she's moving, where she's braced, and what she's holding — rather than treating the behaviour as the problem.
Where herbal support fits
Herbs won't override a cycle, and they won't fix pain that has a physical cause. What they can do is support hormonal balance and the nervous system's ability to cope.
Our Hormonal Balance & Relax formula is built around three jobs. Reproductive hormone support from chaste tree berry and raspberry leaf. Endocrine recovery and blood purifying from kelp, schisandra berry, burdock root and rosehip. Nervous system and adaptation from maca and passionflower.
Full herb-by-herb detail, and the reasoning behind each, is on our ingredients page.
One note for competitors: if you compete under rules with prohibited substance or swabbing policies, check your discipline's list before feeding any herbal product. That's your responsibility, and we'd rather flag it than have you find out the hard way.
What owners have seen
"My mare is much nicer and calmer during her in-season cycle. She is much less sensitive and even enjoys being groomed more."
— A., Geelong
"Kellie is amazing with my mare. The sessions have made an incredible difference to her demeanour and overall health. I highly recommend Synergy Flow Healing!"
— Lynley P.
Where to start
Track the cycle for two months. Rule out pain. Then decide what support fits.
If you want to talk it through first, phone Kellie on 0404 333 059 or email FoxleeEquineWellness@proton.me. Tell us what you're seeing and when — the pattern usually tells us more than the behaviour does.
General wellness support — not a substitute for veterinary care.