Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Masculine Mare

> I have a (QH) mare like that.....besides being the Alpha Boss Mare.......I
> have never seen her in season......she can bring other mares "in" .....I
> swear she "teases" them.....with the crested neck, the sniffing, the
> snorting....she controls the herd, even my strong willed arab
> geldings......But WOW she is a great trail horse.....courageous,
confident,
> curious.....always willing to go.....I would love to breed her, but have
> always assumed that since I couldn't identify a cycle.......breeding would
> most likely be difficult.

Just an aside here--the hormone progesterone (up during pregnancy, and also
produced by the corpus luteum between heats) is very closely related to
testosterone (and in fact, goes through being testosterone at one point in
its production).  It is not uncommon for pregnant mares to exhibit very
stallion-like behavior.  When non-pregnant mares do this, it is also worth
checking to see if they have a granulosa cell ovarian tumor that is
producing progesterone.  Mares that do have granulosa cell tumors often
revert to normal cyclic behavior once the offending ovary is surgically
removed.  I'd suspect that most of the mares that are naturally masculine
have increased progesterone, rather than testosterone, as well....

Heidi


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