GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE BROOD MARE. 159 
the litter absorbing all that falls from the mare and foal, and being 
changed often enough to keep the place dry. In case, however, this 
cannot be done, the flooring should be similar to that for ordinary stables, 
that is to say, laid with bricks or pebbles, clinkers being much too expen- 
sive for such a purpose. Where chalk is abundant, it forms an excellent 
floor, if a drain is cut all round the building, and the soil being taken out 
to the depth of nearly a foot, the chalk is filled in to a little above the 
level of the natural surface, and is then well rammed down, a drain and 
trap being inserted in the middle. The last point which requires consi- 
deration is the kind of manger which is best adapted to the use of the 
mare and her foal, if the latter is to be fed in the way proper to thorough- 
bred stock. In any case, a wooden manger of the ordinary kind should 
be fixed, with a staple for the rack-chain to fasten her up. A hay rack 
should be so arranged that it can be filled from the outside without diffi- 
culty ; which is easily managed by building a little wooden excrescence on 
to one of the outer walls, leaving a hole in the latter for the mare to feed 
herself through. A wooden lid, covered with zinc, lifts up and permits 
the introduction of the fodder without the necessity for carrying a fork 
into the hovel, which will sometimes injure the mare or her foal. Well- 
bred young animals of this species are so mischievous that when shut up 
they will jump into any place which can possibly hold them, and many a 
broken leg or back has ensued from an open hay-rack, placed near the 
ground, attracting the gambols of a foal. A few wooden bars nailed across 
the opening effectually prevents this, while the addition of a low manger 
in another corner provides for the feeding of the foal with kibbled oats, 
if such should be the plan adopted, and the fourth is occupied by a water- 
tank, External to the hovel the only provision necessary is a yard, which 
may be omitted if the paddock is always dry from the land being well 
drained. Unless this is the case, however, the yard should always be 
provided, as there are many days throughout the year when the weather 
is fine enough overhead to allow of the foal being turned out of doors with 
advantage, if it can be protected from the wet grass or wetter soil. <A 
yard is, therefore, truly valuable in the absence of a dry soil, and it should 
be paved with bricks, stones, or pebbles, well covered with a layer of 
litter, to prevent slips and strains. 
GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE BROOD MARE. 
WHEN IT HAS BEEN DECIDED to breed from a mare, if she is not already 
thrown out of work, it will often be necessary to cool her down, by turn- 
ing her out to grass and taking away her corn, before she will become 
stinted.. Thorough-bred mares are not, as a rule, allowed to take the horse 
while in work ; but sometimes they are so constantly “in use,” that no 
other means will enable the trainer to go on with his work of preparation. 
There is a wonderful difference in this respect: some animals are rarely 
“in use,” once or twice a year being the outside; while others are so 
every nine days throughout the spring,—the average, perhaps, being in 
that state at about intervals of two or three months from the time of shed- 
ding their coats till the beginning of autumn. Again, some are not upset 
in their work by this natural process; while others refuse to feed, lose 
condition, and cannot be depended on for half their usual exertions. 
Either extreme requires a change of feeding; for, on the one hand, the 
cool temperament is excited by the freedom of a run at grass, and on the 
other, the warmer one, is benefited by losing the heating qualities of her 
