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Member
Posts: 10

| Just wondering what the opinions are on mares that are spayed have a strong set of papers and are really well broke. Do you look at them as if it was a gelding or do you think it hurts their sale price?
Edited by nvgal 2017-09-10 11:43 AM
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
              Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | I'm not into breeding, so if the mare catches my eye and broke, it wont matter to me, I'm more of a gelding person so she would fit in better and she wont be driving me and the boys crazy since shes spayed. But then you do have the ones that like to raise a baby every now and then so it may hurt her sale price to a point. But if shes a heck of a barrel horse, I dont care one way or the other, I just hate having to deal with the heats and my boys acting all dumb over a mare.
Edited by Southtxponygirl 2017-09-10 12:16 PM
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
        
| Yep, just cause a horse is a mare, doesn't mean if she gets injured she should be a broodmate. So I have no problem buying a spayed mate for a performance horse. | |
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 A Barrel Of Monkeys
Posts: 12972
          Location: Texas | Would you buy a gelding? | |
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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
        Location: Pacific Northwest | GLP - 2017-09-10 10:52 AM
Yep, just cause a horse is a mare, doesn't mean if she gets injured she should be a broodmate. So I have no problem buying a spayed mate for a performance horse.
Yes, THIS. Not saying the OP is like this, but I don't like how people are always saying "the nice thing about mares is if they get hurt, you can breed them." That mentality is part of why we have an overpopulation of horses.
To the OP, it wouldn't bother me a bit. I'm not in the breeding business. I have an above average mare and I still never bred her. | |
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  Location: in the ozone | To me it would be like buying a gelding - if I like the horse & fits my program, then wouldn't hesitate | |
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Industrial Srength Barrel Racer
Posts: 7268
     
| Yep because I don't breed. Same as a gelding to me. | |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 534
  Location: Ohio girl moved to PA | yep sure would! i dont breed either. so thats just a plus to me. | |
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| Completely personal opinion here, but I would not buy a spayed mare, no matter her papers or work ethic.
My husband is an equine vet, and I brought this up to him last night. We concluded that every mare we have seen that's been spayed or he has spayed has had a terrible attitude/been mean as heck/aren't safe to be around. It is always a red flag to me about a horse's attitude when you see "spayed". Just like there's a reason people decide to geld stallions (and get their "brains back between their ears"), there's a reason some people decide to spay mares.
It's not a cheap procedure, and it's usually a last resort to try and curb an attitude issue. There are very few reproductive issues in mares that would necessitate them being spayed, and that is not common practice.
I understand some people would buy a spayed mare, and that's great! Please let me reiterate, this is my personal opinion. Spaying horses is not wrong, nor is it a bad thing to do, but much like people steer clear of certain bloodlines, I choose to steer clear from spayed mares.
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Expert
Posts: 1280
      Location: Texas | madredepeanut - 2017-09-11 7:13 AM Completely personal opinion here, but I would not buy a spayed mare, no matter her papers or work ethic. My husband is an equine vet, and I brought this up to him last night. We concluded that every mare we have seen that's been spayed or he has spayed has had a terrible attitude/been mean as heck/aren't safe to be around. It is always a red flag to me about a horse's attitude when you see "spayed". Just like there's a reason people decide to geld stallions (and get their "brains back between their ears"), there's a reason some people decide to spay mares. It's not a cheap procedure, and it's usually a last resort to try and curb an attitude issue. There are very few reproductive issues in mares that would necessitate them being spayed, and that is not common practice. I understand some people would buy a spayed mare, and that's great! Please let me reiterate, this is my personal opinion. Spaying horses is not wrong, nor is it a bad thing to do, but much like people steer clear of certain bloodlines, I choose to steer clear from spayed mares.
^^^This is my opinion also. I have only known a couple of spayed mares, and they always had behavior issues, and spaying did not help enough to make it worth the $$ to spay them. | |
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Nut Case Expert
Posts: 9305
      Location: Tulsa, Ok | If the spayed mare fit the criteria I was looking for (breeding, conformation, brains, disposition, work ethic etc) in a performance horse then I would have no hesitation. | |
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  That's White "Man" to You
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| Not to ride. | |
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 I Don't Brag
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| madredepeanut - 2017-09-11 7:13 AM
Completely personal opinion here, but I would not buy a spayed mare, no matter her papers or work ethic.
My husband is an equine vet, and I brought this up to him last night. We concluded that every mare we have seen that's been spayed or he has spayed has had a terrible attitude/been mean as heck/aren't safe to be around. It is always a red flag to me about a horse's attitude when you see "spayed". Just like there's a reason people decide to geld stallions (and get their "brains back between their ears"), there's a reason some people decide to spay mares.
It's not a cheap procedure, and it's usually a last resort to try and curb an attitude issue. There are very few reproductive issues in mares that would necessitate them being spayed, and that is not common practice.
I understand some people would buy a spayed mare, and that's great! Please let me reiterate, this is my personal opinion. Spaying horses is not wrong, nor is it a bad thing to do, but much like people steer clear of certain bloodlines, I choose to steer clear from spayed mares.
Well that is kind of a silly stance to take if you don't actually evaluate the spayed mare's attitude. I have had to spay TWO mares due to PAIN issues. The first was a crabby mare before spaying and was still crabby after, but the grittiest, most honest horse I have ever ridden. Her ovaries would get to be the size of grapefruits and would not release the multiple follicles she would develop without not only hormones but required a follow up visit to gently massage the softened follicles off her affected ovary. Since absolutely nothing helped her, I had her spayed at 8 years old after going through just one summer with her. At age 15 this same mare had 30 FEET of small intestine removed and 100 days after surgery won the average at our Regional Finals after hauling her 900 miles to get there. I could put up with crabby for that. She was never mean and never dangerous.
The second mare was sweet as pie but she also had retained follicles that nothing else prevented and I spayed her. She was sweet before and sweet after.
Some us spay for other reasons than attitude....like our horse's health and comfort. | |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
              Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | rodeoveteran - 2017-09-11 6:55 PM madredepeanut - 2017-09-11 7:13 AM Completely personal opinion here, but I would not buy a spayed mare, no matter her papers or work ethic. My husband is an equine vet, and I brought this up to him last night. We concluded that every mare we have seen that's been spayed or he has spayed has had a terrible attitude/been mean as heck/aren't safe to be around. It is always a red flag to me about a horse's attitude when you see "spayed". Just like there's a reason people decide to geld stallions (and get their "brains back between their ears"), there's a reason some people decide to spay mares. It's not a cheap procedure, and it's usually a last resort to try and curb an attitude issue. There are very few reproductive issues in mares that would necessitate them being spayed, and that is not common practice. I understand some people would buy a spayed mare, and that's great! Please let me reiterate, this is my personal opinion. Spaying horses is not wrong, nor is it a bad thing to do, but much like people steer clear of certain bloodlines, I choose to steer clear from spayed mares. Well that is kind of a silly stance to take if you don't actually evaluate the spayed mare's attitude. I have had to spay TWO mares due to PAIN issues. The first was a crabby mare before spaying and was still crabby after, but the grittiest, most honest horse I have ever ridden. Her ovaries would get to be the size of grapefruits and would not release the multiple follicles she would develop without not only hormones but required a follow up visit to gently massage the softened follicles off her affected ovary. Since absolutely nothing helped her, I had her spayed at 8 years old after going through just one summer with her. At age 15 this same mare had 30 FEET of small intestine removed and 100 days after surgery won the average at our Regional Finals after hauling her 900 miles to get there. I could put up with crabby for that. She was never mean and never dangerous. The second mare was sweet as pie but she also had retained follicles that nothing else prevented and I spayed her. She was sweet before and sweet after. Some us spay for other reasons than attitude....like our horse's health and comfort.
Your awesome rodeoveteran, I had a spayed mare and she was spayed for the same reasons befor I bought her, she was a really sweet mare sold her to a family with a little girl and they loved till the end of this mares life she had a forever home. | |
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  Ms. Marine
Posts: 4642
     Location: Texas | Yes I absolutely would. | |
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| rodeoveteran - 2017-09-11 4:55 PM
madredepeanut - 2017-09-11 7:13 AM
Completely personal opinion here, but I would not buy a spayed mare, no matter her papers or work ethic.
My husband is an equine vet, and I brought this up to him last night. We concluded that every mare we have seen that's been spayed or he has spayed has had a terrible attitude/been mean as heck/aren't safe to be around. It is always a red flag to me about a horse's attitude when you see "spayed". Just like there's a reason people decide to geld stallions (and get their "brains back between their ears"), there's a reason some people decide to spay mares.
It's not a cheap procedure, and it's usually a last resort to try and curb an attitude issue. There are very few reproductive issues in mares that would necessitate them being spayed, and that is not common practice.
I understand some people would buy a spayed mare, and that's great! Please let me reiterate, this is my personal opinion. Spaying horses is not wrong, nor is it a bad thing to do, but much like people steer clear of certain bloodlines, I choose to steer clear from spayed mares.
Well that is kind of a silly stance to take if you don't actually evaluate the spayed mare's attitude. I have had to spay TWO mares due to PAIN issues. The first was a crabby mare before spaying and was still crabby after, but the grittiest, most honest horse I have ever ridden. Her ovaries would get to be the size of grapefruits and would not release the multiple follicles she would develop without not only hormones but required a follow up visit to gently massage the softened follicles off her affected ovary. Since absolutely nothing helped her, I had her spayed at 8 years old after going through just one summer with her. At age 15 this same mare had 30 FEET of small intestine removed and 100 days after surgery won the average at our Regional Finals after hauling her 900 miles to get there. I could put up with crabby for that. She was never mean and never dangerous.
The second mare was sweet as pie but she also had retained follicles that nothing else prevented and I spayed her. She was sweet before and sweet after.
Some us spay for other reasons than attitude....like our horse's health and comfort.
Like I said before, this is my personal opinion. I understand you have your opinion, and I do not discredit that or what you have done or been through in any way, shape or form.
If I saw an ad where a mare was listed as spayed, I probably would not take a second look. Just my opinion. The title of this thread is "Would you buy a spayed mare?", so I answered truthfully.
I understand some mares have health issues that necessitate spaying, and I am not saying let them suffer by not spaying them. I am simply saying a spayed mare is not one I would want to purchase. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 695
     Location: Windoming | I had a friend spay some mares because they had such painful heat cycles, not because they had bad attitudes. | |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
     Location: Texas | nvgal - 2017-09-10 11:05 AM
Just wondering what the opinions are on mares that are spayed have a strong set of papers and are really well broke. Do you look at them as if it was a gelding or do you think it hurts their sale price?
that would be a hard no. The reason why I like mares is because if they ever get hurt I can breed them...or if they end up being a super nice performer I can breed them.
ETA- To comment on the post made by the BB whose husband is an equine vet.. I'm a vet too, and this honestly crossed my mind. All of the horses we've come across where spaying was brought up was because there was some sort of issue- either heat cycle related or something else.
And what some people forget is when you spay a mare, they will actually be receptive to a stallion all the time. They wont have pain when they ovulate because they won't be ovulating anymore...but they will squat and pee and show heat when the opportunity arises. It's why we spay them to make tease mares.
Edited by casualdust07 2017-09-12 4:15 PM
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 Member
Posts: 38

| That's actually very interesting to know. I know little about spayed mares so that's a neat fact.
Personally I'd stray away from a spayed mare (much like I'm not huge on buying geldings). I like knowing that they *could* have a 2nd job when their career is over whereas geldings/spayed mares can't be bred after. There are obviously plenty of horses that earn their retirement outside of needing bred obviously but I know I personally try to map out multiple options for the horses I breed/buy when I can. | |
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