me and mum have just got a new horse between us who is pregnant. we knew she was when we got her so its ok, and we have owned horses for a long time.

anyway, she is lovely except when she is with other horses. she gets really protective over them, and if you try to get one of her friends from the field she tries to kick and bite. she can get quite nasty at times, but we dont wanna sell her because she is lovely the rest of the time and we've got attached to her.

right. the worry we have is when she has the foal. are we going to be able to do things with it? the last two foals we've had have been handled since birth and theyve been fantastic, we're just worried we wont be able to do it with this one. l know mares are protective over their foals, but we dont want her to get aggressive over it.

has anyone had a horse like this? what happens when the foal comes?

any help appreciated =]

That mare will leave an imprint on her foal, so watch it. That is all l can really say.

She might be aggressive at first but let her know its ok.She might eventually let you handle the foal.

It is not necessarily bad that this mare is behaving like this. Some dams are simply more hormonal than others. If you feel that she is dangerous, just isolate her until gestation so that she does not hurt anyone and definitely isolate her until she can be separated from the foal. Proper handling can fix any manner problem, so do not worry about the foal. Just make sure that if the foal has bad manners to be consistent with rewards and scolds.

l am really no expert on this but l have a mare who gave birth to my colt in April and at first the mare was extremely protective over the colt, as you can imagine. The only person she would let in the stable to see my colt was me, because she trusted me and she already knew me.
My advice would be to try and gain your horse is full trust and form a strong bond with her so that, by the time the foal comes, she will know who you are and know that you mean no harm.

Well, you are right that most mares are protective of their foals. Has she had foals before?
If she has, then she probably will be okay.
If not, she just has to get used to it. Have someone hold her while you handle her foal, and she will see that you wo not hurt her or her foal. then, you can get into handling foal and mare without having to hold mare.
l really hope this helps. l have the same worry with my mare.

My guess is that if she is that protective over herd mates, she will probably get protective over her baby as well. My mare luckily could have cared less what we did with the baby (she did not even go crazy chasing after it the first time we let them out into the pasture, lol.she just ate while he ran around). My neighbors, on the other hand, have a broodmare who is NASTY when she has a baby. You cannot get anywhere near it without the risk of teeth or a hoof coming after you. However, at least with their mare, once the ''new baby smell'' wears off, they chill out some & r not so overprotective.

Also, l have known some mares who get very clingy & protective of their herd mates BECAUSE they r pregnant. It is like those hormones r kicking in & they start acting motherly towards other horses. So, u may be surprised to find that once the baby is born & even weaned that she might not go back to being like she was before. My mare ''adopted'' a weanling l purchased when she was still pregnant. She usually was not as friendly towards new horses but she really took a liking to him & treated him like her own. Thankfully she did not let him nurse! Actually, sort of OT, but she had her foal the same time that a pasturemate had hers, & my mare would come very close to letting the other mare is foal nurse off of her. She was a really good mom.

Our boss mare was like that & when she had her first foal she was very protective & shook her head at us when we got close. We distracted her with some sweet feed & were able to get near the foal. We had to be very cautious at first. The mare soon saw we were not going to hurt her foal & was fine with us touching her. She never did that with later foals. You should back ur mare off when she is acting nasty & trying to bite or kick. When she does this stand straight up, yell & wave ur arms at her. When she backs away or stops her behavior go back to what u were doing. Do not let her get near u when she is like this. When she behaves praise her.
Here is that mare with her new born foal & her ears back:
http://spotted.horsecity.com/photos/index.php?id=1539533&size=large

She maybe a very aggressive mare to begin with but the true test will come once she has the foal. My guess is since she is aggressive with other horses already that she will continue & probably be more so once baby is born the question is will she act that way toward you.. If she does, do not get between her & the foal. Always put the halter & lead rope on her when u go in her stall & if necessary tie her up. Generally, after a week or so they chill out & u can deal with baby much easier.