Q: I own a 5-year-old Friesian cross mare that I have had since her birth; she is handled regularly, and I started riding her at 2. She has always had issues with being "touchy" on her flanks, under her belly, and near her teats. She flattens her ears when I brush her and may swing her head around if I brush under her belly. I continually touch her there to try to work on the issue and have tried everything–treating for tolerating it, reward and release (hard to do when she doesn’t totally give in to it, just tolerates it), touching her lightly, or touching her harder. It just does not get better. I have to stand at her shoulder and reach under to stay out of the reach of her hind leg, which she wants to kick at me. She is not sensitive to my leg under saddle, and I ride dressage with whip and spurs and can use them without a fuss. She is a little sensitive when I girth her up but there’s nothing really special about it. Overall, she is either grouchy or nonchalant. She is turned out with one other horse, a gelding that I have had for the past year, but she has been touchy for most of her life. Are there any hormonal or physical problems that could cause this, or is this purely a behavioral issue?

Gayle in Oregon, via e-mail

A: With sensitivity at the flank and udder, one thing to rule out right away is any urogenital discomfort. Something as simple as vaginitis (vaginal inflammation) or vaginal irritation from pneumovagina (aspiration of air into the vagina, or windsucking) or urovagina (urine pooling) has in some cases been associated with such sensitivity at the flank, udder, and rear underbelly. When those problems were treated and resolved, the goosiness at the flank and udder resolved as well.

There is some published evidence in horses and other species that irritating urogenital conditions can be associated with apparent discomfort or sensitivities at the abdomen and flank areas–really anywhere beyond the shoulder. This phenomenon in which the perception of pain is localized to a body part distant from the site of the pain’s origin is known as referred pain. Also, some horses with gastric ulcers can have behavior similar to what you describe. In either case, it would be interesting to know how young your filly was when this started