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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11493
   
Location: 31 lengths farms | 3 years ago my mare who at the time was 8 all of a sudden started acting up in the trailer, she'd been hauled since she was a yearling regularly and she was always the one you could count on to behave in and at the trailer. Loaded up one day to haul over to the arena and she kicked a few times, reached in and popped her on the butt and that was it for that trip. A month or so later hauled over again and this time about half way into a 10 minute trip she about tore the trailer apart. I was hoping it was bees or hornets but opened the trailer, the other 3 horses were all standing with a foot cocked wondering what her issue was, not a bee or hornet in sight but she tore herself apart. Should mention that between those two trips also that I had to separate her and the gelding who had been the alpha horse, she started absolutely terrorizing him and they had been together since she was a two year old.
Anyway, took the other 3 horses home and waited for someone to get home to go back over to the arena after her, opened all the dividers, walked her in and closed the further one back and I stood in the trailer with her head on my shoulder over the divider on the way home, had the back door rigged where I could get out if I had to if she blew up again. She just put her head on my shoulder and shook the whole way home. Took 10 weeks to get the hock to heal, got a joint infection and then she abscessed in the other hind foot, not sure from kicking in the trailer or basically being 3 legged for 10 weeks. Loaded her again, just loaded and she walked right in, but reached for the divider to close it and she started to panic. Have loaded her and let her stand to eat, one time I was able to close the divider but as soon as I started to leave the trailer she started to panic again.
I had blood work done on her testosterone levels are very high but I can't safely get her in a trailer to take her to find out if it is adrenal gland or a tumor on the ovary. If my gelding gets anywhere near her she about tries to climb the fence to kill him, completely fine with the other mare next to her and or by herself. I've finally gotten her feeling 100% again physically. Talked to the vet and he said to try acing her before I load her. Guess just wanting some feed back from anyone that has dealt with this issue. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 555
Location: Puky midwest | Could she be getting a shock where she is standing?
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11493
Location: 31 lengths farms | I dont' think so, I've had other horses in that compartment before and after the really bad incident, but that would help tremendously if it was...guess I'll check it out anyway tonight again! |
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 Expert
Posts: 1857
| I would really suspect ovaries, maybe a tumor. Explain the aggressiveness and stallion like behavior with the gelding. Also might be why being in a trailer has become an issue. The pain from the vibration has caused her to associate the trailer with pain and maybe why she flips out. Hope you get it figured out! |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11493
Location: 31 lengths farms | We know she is high in testosterone, did that blood work because that is what I suspected also. Do horse like this tend to do better in an open type trailer, like take all the dividers out? I had put her in the back compartment in my trailer when it happened because it is the largest one and my trailer is an extra high extra wide sooner, she is a big mare, a shade under 17 hands, thought she 'd be more comfortable back there but in reality it almost seemed like she was able to get her back legs up higher when she did kick, allowing her to get more power behind those kicks and tear herself up in the process, thankfully the trailer didn't receive as much damage as she did, I think my fiancé would have shot her where she stood that day if she had.
Another friend told me to do an steer implant on her but I've heard that those can cause issues down the road if you decide to breed so I've put off doing that. She walks right in the trailer no problem, just doesn't want you to close the divider on her. |
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
| Did you try giving banimine and some ace and them putting her in the trailer. At home i would give her ace and load her dont go anywhere see what happens. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 330
| Have you considered ulcers?
My mare behaves with EXTREME anxiety when her ulcers flare up, and will kick the daylights out of my trailer as well. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1034
| FlyingJT - 2014-06-19 5:00 PM
I would really suspect ovaries, maybe a tumor. Explain the aggressiveness and stallion like behavior with the gelding. Also might be why being in a trailer has become an issue. The pain from the vibration has caused her to associate the trailer with pain and maybe why she flips out. Hope you get it figured out!
I agree. I'd get ultra sound of her whole repro system. She could have a huge cyst or tumor that is being vibrated in the trailer. She sounds like she's having a pain response to the trailer and a hormonal response to your gelding. |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11493
Location: 31 lengths farms | Exactly why I'm trying to figure out the How to get her safely to the vet thing. Good idea idea on the ulcers... Didn't even think about that considering all we've done for the last 3 years has been trying to get her completely healthy physically again after the hock injury in the trailering incident. She then dealt with abscesses on and off in her feet from her immune system being so messed up from the long term heavy antibiotics for the joint infection. She was a mess for almost 2 years. Forget that pain alone can create ulcers... Thanks for the reminder!
Sounds like I'm going to have to get a little more on schedule about acing her and just putting her in the trailer to hang out for short periods. Right now I walk her in and hang out with her in there whenever I haul somewhere with the other two but I never ace her to see if I can close a divider... Sounds like I need to:-( |
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 Texas Tenderheart
Posts: 6715
Location: Red Raiderland | FlyingJT - 2014-06-19 5:00 PM I would really suspect ovaries, maybe a tumor. Explain the aggressiveness and stallion like behavior with the gelding. Also might be why being in a trailer has become an issue. The pain from the vibration has caused her to associate the trailer with pain and maybe why she flips out. Hope you get it figured out! I second this notion. I have a 12 year old mare that started doing this over a year ago. No matter what slot you put her in she was going to kick and kick another horse if it was loaded next to her. She's a nice barrel horse so I had to get to the bottom of it. I had my husband drive into town while she was in there and the second she started her hissy I would pop her on the rear with a crop. She would be fine and even relaxed the rest of the 20 min trip. I would think she was ok and bam out of nowhere she would start again either on our way to a barrel race or coming home. I had our repro vet US her ovaries to make sure there was no tumor and he took a blood test. Everything came back normal but we narrowed it down to sore ovaries and I started her on progestrone shots every 3 weeks. We hauled to the vet on Tue which is 120 mile round trip and she had two other mares loaded with her. Not one incident. So far so good. I think Flying JT is right. Their ovaries are sore and when the trailer gets to bouncing and vibrating down the road it is painful. BTW, I've had this mare since she was 2 and not until last year did she start this nonsense. Hope you find out soon because they can do damage and even end their career!
Edited by Kaycee 2014-06-20 10:55 AM
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Regular
Posts: 67
Location: TN | Kaycee - 2014-06-20 10:53 AM FlyingJT - 2014-06-19 5:00 PM I would really suspect ovaries, maybe a tumor. Explain the aggressiveness and stallion like behavior with the gelding. Also might be why being in a trailer has become an issue. The pain from the vibration has caused her to associate the trailer with pain and maybe why she flips out. Hope you get it figured out! I second this notion. I have a 12 year old mare that started doing this over a year ago. No matter what slot you put her in she was going to kick and kick another horse if it was loaded next to her. She's a nice barrel horse so I had to get to the bottom of it. I had my husband drive into town while she was in there and the second she started her hissy I would pop her on the rear with a crop. She would be fine and even relaxed the rest of the 20 min trip. I would think she was ok and bam out of nowhere she would start again either on our way to a barrel race or coming home. I had our repro vet US her ovaries to make sure there was no tumor and he took a blood test. Everything came back normal but we narrowed it down to sore ovaries and I started her on progestrone shots every 3 weeks. We hauled to the vet on Tue which is 120 mile round trip and she had two other mares loaded with her. Not one incident. So far so good. I think Flying JT is right. Their ovaries are sore and when the trailer gets to bouncing and vibrating down the road it is painful. BTW, I've had this mare since she was 2 and not until last year did she start this nonsense. Hope you find out soon because they can do damage and even end their career!
I also agree with the above mentioned posts. My mare, who I had raised, didn't start acting up in the trailer until she was 9. She was a monster turned out with other horses or stalled beside them. Hauling her became a nightmare, she would kick and throw herself around literally tear herself and the trailer apart. After several visits to the vet, he and I decided it was sore ovaries. Even though she is a 1D/2D runner, I never planned on breeding her, so it was an easy choice to have the ovaries removed. Best decision I ever made. She is now safe to turn out with other horses and hauls good. Only thing now is, she is claustrophobic in trailer. She will lean against the divider until she tears it down. So I either leave one of the stall dividers tied open or remove it so she can have a "queen" size stall. |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11493
Location: 31 lengths farms | Thanks everyone, just gotta figure out how to get her to the vet safely...might be riding in the back with her again apparently. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1367
Location: mi | My vet will give me a tube of Dormosedan (sp?) gel. When I have a need for it. Does a good job of making them sleepy yet not to the point of falling down. I would just tranq her and head to the vet. |
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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | This thread is interesting to me...I'm kind of new to mares, in all my years with horses I've only ever owned two, and my first one had absolutely zero typical "mare" issues. My newest one, while she's not as bad as some, is definitely a mare. I can tell when she's cycling, sometimes she's moody, etc. She's pretty good about everything but I've noticed she can be stressed in the trailer at times. I feel her dance around a lot, she has to go in the last slot so she doesn't have any horses behind her to kick at, and sometimes even if she hauls alone when I pull her out she's sweaty from dancing around. She never refuses to load or anything like that, but she's obviously not completely comfortable in the trailer. She's done some other things that make me think her ovaries are sore (and she's already been successfully treated for ulcers, so I know that's not it), so maybe I will look into that more.
OP I hope you figure out what's wrong with yours. It sucks when a solid horse suddenly starts having a huge issue because you know something triggered it, but it can be hard to figure out what. |
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  Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | Is hauling her in an open stock trailer an option or can you remove your dividers?
As far as the trailering itself, I've got my trailer backed up to my round pen. I've got one horse that came to me with issues that I've been working with for a long time. He'll load without a halter and stand on the trailer by himself--- but come he** or highwater he's got to turn around and he panics bad if he can't. It took a while just to get him near the trailer to begin with. He was truly afraid of being further inside the trailer.
He has all the go forward cues in place -- he was just truly afraid. So I backed my trailer up to the round pen. Then every day I put the feed on the trailer -- just far enough in that I knew he'd get at least his front feet in while he ate. I turned him in the pen while I did chores and every now and then I'd hear him go on and off the trailer. Every day I'd move that bucket a little closer to the front so he was getting further and further into the trailer.
After a while of doing that, I left a small bit of feed at the front of the slot. I'd send him forward to the feed. It took a little while but eventually he started staying forward long enough to take a few bites and he relaxed a little more. I think his going on by himself really did help him get to that point. Before, it didn't matter if there was feed up there or not.
Now, every day before I turn him out, I send him on the trailer for a few minutes before I turn him out. Some days he'll start backing out before I ask or he'll turn around and I just send him right back on. If he stays for just a few minutes, then I'll back him out and turn him out. He's gotten used to that routine and I've seen a huge improvement the last little bit.
Feeding her on the trailer and letting her figure it out for herself might |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1034
| run n rate - 2014-06-20 2:49 PM
Thanks everyone, just gotta figure out how to get her to the vet safely...might be riding in the back with her again apparently.
Your vet doesn't have a portable ultrasound? You may want to ask around and see if one will come to you with a portable machine. I just had my mare u/s'd at my house this morning.
??? |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1035
Location: TN | She sounds like my boyfriend's mare. He trained and hauled his mare since she was 3 and when she was 11 she started throwing fits in trailers. He always hauls her in the last slant because she likes the extra space but when she started these fits it didn't matter what trailer she was in (3 horse slant, open stock, etc.) she'd kick the back door the whole way. She beat the absolute crap out of the door to the point that it had to be fixed. He tried a kicking chain but that didn't slow her down so he started giving her some ace to calm her down when he hauled her, but he hated doing that. Soooo I suggested she might have ulcers, he took her to get scoped and sure enough she did. He treated the ulcers, switched her feed, and had a marble put in her (to keep her from coming in heat because that was another one of her issues). All of those things combined made a world of difference. For the first year after all of this he would tie the last slant back and let her have the last two spots in the trailer. Or you could tie my gelding back there with her and she'd be fine. 4 years later she still has a marble in but we haven't had anymore issues and she can be hauled in the back slant or by herself without any problems. |
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Fire Ant Peddler
Posts: 2881
| run n rate - 2014-06-20 2:49 PM
Thanks everyone, just gotta figure out how to get her to the vet safely...might be riding in the back with her again apparently.
My loading method----works exceptionally well in hot weather when you really don't want to fight it out. put horse in round pen. Back the trailer up to the round pen. Feed the horse in the trailer. if they want to eat they will get in. After a few days close the door to the trailer and put in the feed. Catch the horse, open the trailer and hand load the horse. You might even close the divider while the horse eats. This is what I do with my babies and anyone else who needs loading practice. |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11493
Location: 31 lengths farms | She loads like a Champ,walk right in quiet and stand with a foot cocked, just don't close the divider. Even the day she blew up in there, opened the door and she backed out, all be it bleeding from everywhere, like a seasoned pro. And, no, my vet that makes farm calls doesn't have a portable ultra sound. To this day when I load her she walks in quietly but you can see the anxiety start to build when I even think to grab hold of the divider. I do have some Ace from a dog that didn't travel well, think I'll give her a little slug of it and see if I can get her to accept the divider so I can get her to the vet. If not a tumor then I'm thinking about trying the marble deal and see what we get. I'd hate to spay her, she is gorgeous and was a heck of a mare before this started. Very stoic mare so unfortunately she is the kind that before she lets on something is up it is usually quite bad before you figure it out. |
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Member
Posts: 47
| We had a mare do the exact thing. We put her on the supplement PMS and it stopped it. Also you may want to have her vet checked for a cyst on ovaries |
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