Fillies and mares in heat

[Tbird]

I'm curious---are fillies and mares raced when they are in heat? Are their race dates timed around heat cycle?
Are they given something to keep them from coming in while in training?
Just wondering.

[Crystal]

I dont think most trainers even notice or care. When the office writes the race you enter, no matter whos' on the rag...LOL

[madelyn]

There are some fillies that just cannot focus on racing when they are in heat and for those there is Regumate. There is also the marble technique which works well for some.

[Rachel Alexandra]

Trainers do notice and do care whether or not the filly/mare is in season. They don't necessarily enter races according to the cycle, but a good trainer is going to pay attention to whether or not the horse is in season only to know if it is part of the reason the horse ran poorly.
I know a couple fillies that actually ran better when in season. Then there are some that it doesn't affect at all.

[winds]

I rubbed a filly named Populi, she seemed to be in season everyday. The day she ran against the boys ( and won ) she wasn't in season.

Her younger 1/2 brother was Temperance Hill and she became the dam of Vanlandingham and other stake horses. She never won after I left, her trainer Joe Cantey III said I'd spoiled her.

wind

[griff]

some stop cycling, especially if they are traind hard.. I believe the same thing sometimes happens with humans

griff

[Toccet02]

yes, with gymnasts. I had hard that female racers were put on hormones to prevent heat. Maybe that was in the "old days"

[jagger]

OK, Madelyn, I'll bite. What is the "marble technique"?

[madelyn]

I was wondering if someone would ask. During the filly's heat, while the cervix is open wide enough, a sterilized large round marble of the childhood toy variety (I think it is called a shooter) is inserted into the uterus. It fools the mare's body into thinking it is in foal, and lasts about 80-90 days before the uterus expels it as a "dead fetus." The in-foal condition puts off estrus. A few vets around here have had pretty good luck with it.

[griff]

Kind of like an IUD??

Maybe something like an equineIUD will be developed that will not be expelled. That would be a boom for the BOL mgt.

griff

[madelyn]

The IUD doesn't prevent estrus. I believe that the copper provides an inhostile environment, either causing sperm or egg to die, I'm unsure. This doesn't really have an equine application.

[griff]

Still might be something the BOL management could instert in feral mares they want to put back on the range. Either that or short scrotum the stallions, or both.

griff