56 TIE HORSE. 
CHAPTER XI. 
THE BROOD MARE AND HER FOAL. 
THE HOVEL AND PADDOCK—GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE BROOD-MARE—TREATMENT 
WHEN IN FOAL—AFTER FOALING—EARLY MANAGEMENT OF THE FOAL—WEANING— 
CASTRATION. 
HavING ALREADY ALLUDED to the principles which should guide the 
breeder in the choice of his mares, I need not further allude to them 
beyond the remark, that independently of those which I have indicated, 
he must take care that they are each possessed of a frame suitable to carry 
a foal, and of a constitution hardy enough to sustain the drain upon the 
system caused by the young animal, both before and after birth. If the 
pelvis and back ribs are not large and deep, the fatus will not have room 
to be developed and brought into the world; and unless the mare is a 
good feeder, and is also furnished with an udder which will give sufficient 
milk, she will not afford enough nourishment to her foal, which will, 
therefore, be weakly and badly developed in its proportions. The shape 
may be easily detected beforehand, but the constitution and milking 
properties cannot so well be predicated, though the experienced eye and 
hand of the stud-groom will enable him to give a tolerably correct guess. 
HOVEL AND PADDOCK. 
Ir THE BREEDER is about to undertake the production of a number of 
horses of any kind, he must establish a regular stud-farm, which for all 
horses should be on sound upland, with a subsoil of chalk or gravel. The 
presence of fine white clovers is in itself almost sufficient to show that the 
soil will be suitable to the horse; but, if possible, there should be an 
absolute practical knowledge that the situation has agreed with the animal, 
before any heavy investment is made. If the surface fall is good, draining 
may not be necessary, but in most cases the herbage will be greatly 
improved by the introduction of tiles. Low, marshy situations may serve 
during the autumn months to freshen up a stall horse, but they are utterly 
unfit for the rearing of young stock, and should be carefully avoided. If 
the stud is highly bred, and the feeding is to be good, the colts will be 
very mischievous, and uuless care is taken to make the fences safe, they 
will break bounds, or injure themselves in the attempt. Deep ditches are 
very unsafe, for the mare as well as her foal are very apt to get cast in 
them, with a serious or fatal injury as the result. -Posts and rails answer 
well enough, where timber is plentiful, but, in the long run, they are 
expensive from the necessity for constant repairs. Banks with thorn 
hedges on the top are the very best of all means for enclosing the 
paddocks, and are even better than stone walls, which, however, are 
excellent for the purpose if they have the soil raised against their bases, 
without which the foal is liable to slip up against their surface, and thus 
sometimes blemish his knees. There is a great difference of opinion as to 
the size necessary for the paddocks, and the number of mares which 
should be allowed in each. In some well conducted stud-farms, as, for 
