Hi Linda,

Perhaps this might help you. I also have a mare and they can be a bit bossy, right.
My naturalpath for my mare suggested I take her off all grain and put her on Fat and Fiber instead. It slows the blood and they seem to be calmer. I have had MY Star on this product for one full year now, she is three and I have seen a great difference in her behaviour.
It's a great product and is fantastic for their nutritional needs, she's in fantastic shape, in all ways her vet says.
Something that might help you with feeding time is; take a pole, (broom handle, perhaps) and attach some plastic bags to it and at feeding time hold these bags over the bucket and wave it back and forth until you give her permission to eat.
Another trick is to not fill all the buckets with feed, perhaps every other one. The horses will go and search for the food and you will have more control over where the food is and when thay can eat.
My mare now waits patiently until I give her permission to start eating. I just have to shake my finger over the bucket and she turns her head away until I point at the bucket and remove my hand from over it.
It works, I learnt that from Pat Parelli's university.
It's good ground manners.
Also, is it possible to not keep the buckets in the paddock until thay are going to be used, this also will give you more control.
I certainly understand you don't want your horses to be hurt.
It's strange how backing a horse up seems to calm them, I have and still have to do this with my mare, quite often to relax her and get her into a learning frame of mind.
I hope some of these suggestions help.
Ronda

Linda
Why are you graining your horses? If they are not performance horses and constantly working you should be very careful about giving them any grain. There are a number of pellet feeds that are alfalfa based with very low sugar content. I would be inclined to give your horses a senior horse type mix. Which is also less likely to cause them to colic.

I feed my 12 year old stallion orchard grass in the morning and alfalfa during his afternoon meal. It is supplemented by Neutrino Safe Choice. This gives him more than enough nutrition with out the "hot" feed of grain. He is always in training as a show horse, but he is very calm and what I would call peaceful horse.

One other thing you might want to try is to feed your mare by herself by putting her feed a few years away from the other horses until she quotes down. Horses will always test each other around food, but it usually resolves its self quickly

Cheers

I do not think this is about what they are being fed. As I do use for most of the "graining" a supplement called Complete 12 this is a hay based product with a vit. pack. Our horses are sport/performance horses. The horse in question is a very hot TB. She is aggressive not only with the feed but with hay and water, just not as bad as with the "grain". The grain I feed beside the supplement is Nutrena sweet feed triumph 10/10 this for mares, maintenance and preformance horses. This is why I do not think it is a feed issue.

Linda
It almost sounds like your horse does not get along with any horse and perhaps she wants to be the lead mare and is fighting for that position. More people thing that the stallion in a group of horses is the boss, but in most cases it is a mare who keeps order and safety of the heard. Is it possible that this is what is going on with your TB? Also it is not uncommon for a horse just to be very possessive of their food and territory no matter what you do

Cheers

Linda,

Although it sounds like your mare is concerned with pecking order and does not have a "starving/guarding food" issue (which also can cause agression), I would still feed her and your other horse at opposite ends of the run from each other, as suggested. And feed her first. I'm assuming she's not aggressive towards you?

Also, I can recommend an herbal product called Mare Magic. It will help calm your mare generally but is especially helpful when she is in heat.

Good luck!

It sounds as if your mare has had some bad experiences in the past with other horses, or has been very lonely and not used to company of other horse or she just has a fairly aggressive dominant personality or all of these things. Feed time always seems to highlight the pecking order in a group of horses even if they do get on well at other times. Training your horses to each go to their individual bowls and waite for their food as suggested by My Star should help here. Make sure the bowls are well separated for this so each horse has its own space. Once they are at their bowls take the feed to them in their pecking order . Has she kicked or bitten your other horses viciously enough to cause injury?? If so I would tend to feed her in a different yard. If she is really mean even when it is not feed time I would be inclined to keep her separate so that she doesn't cause injuries to your other horses. I know that it is nice to keep them in a herd with friends if possible but you do not wont large vet bills and injured horses either. If she gets on better with some horses and not others then perhaps you can separate her out with those.

Julie,
I love Mare Magic and boy does it work to calm a MARE, I wish I could take some now and then as well.
When MY STAR is in heat it can be very serious, she has some bad ones, our vet said she is a danger to herself and to others, she can clear our six foot fences and I have to keep her in her stall when she's really in bad shape, poor thing.
Last summer she jumped the fence and ran down the road to the next farm and was with their male goats. She could have been hit by a truck. When I approached her she was almost wild with panic, it took some doing to get her calmed down enough for me to put a halter on and lead her home. That's when we stared the Mare Magic and it calmed her considerably.
We are not sure of her breed, just that she is a hottie.
I have received the DNA testing from the Lipizzan (french) Lipazzaner (german) American Registry, our vet suspects she may be Lipizzan. She was seal brown bay when she was young, turned black over the winter and this summer is sprinkled with white everywhere. Her mane and tail are turning as well. Her skin is pure black, as well.
The auction house in the USA where she was bought has had Lipizzan's found there.
Her conformation, disposition and youth (Mental) co-inside with these suspicions. I certainly hope not, they are difficult to train and stay very immature until they are 10 years of age, by then I'll be an old lady with no strength left.
Patti Hanco, Toronto, Canada has been training show horses for years and is a champion herself. She is a naturalpath for horses and believes a horse needs nothing except good pasture and the very best hay money can buy, that's it. She said to me one time, when I suggested they may need more, wild horses exert themself more that any other breed and excel with only pasture.
So she convinced me to take MY STAR off all grain and just use the pellets as a supplement. It's worked well for her, she is calmer all year around now.
Sounds strange but what have we got to loose, ah, it's worth a try, no.

I think we may all benefit from a bit of Mare Magic! Sounds great and I will find out whether we have it in Oz for my mare when she is in season. She is pretty placid but they all seem to change personalities when in season. Wow! I am pleased I didn't have to deal with My Star. Do hope she is not Lipizzan as that sounds like an added problem for you, My Star.