488 THE HORSE BREEDING 



CXXIV.) produced thirty-five living foals. 1 Conception is 

 made more likely when there is any tendency to barren- 

 ness by the use of a cart horse on a Thoroughbred mare, or 

 of a Thoroughbred horse upon a cart mare. 2 



A foal that gallops till it perspires copiously on being 

 put out for an hour or two after it is, say, ten days old, 

 should not be allowed to lie on the cold ground or in a 

 draught, else it is liable to scour and swell at the joints 

 and become worthless. 



A foal brought up by hand should be fed with cow's 

 full-milk: "Clyde," alias "Glancer" (153), which developed 

 into a grand horse and became a most successful breeder, was 

 reared in this way. It is frequently spoiled in disposition 

 through being petted or played with, so that it becomes too 

 familiar with its attendant, and loses the natural and necessary 

 respect for the authority of its master. An ancient practice 

 in Norfolk after the foal is two weeks old, is to feed it on 

 skim-milk, boiled linseed, and bean-meal, getting gradually 

 up to 2 gallons of milk and 4 Ibs. of the mixture per day. 



Joint-Ill : Navel-Ill : Specific Arthritis. This gout-like 

 affection of foals is similar to that seen in calves, and is due 

 to the entrance of an organism by way of the unhealed 

 umbilical cord. The organism produces blood-poisoning and 

 the formation of pus. The joints swell, become hot, and 

 are very painful, and there is high fever and great debility. 

 " The Treatment is extremely unsatisfactory, but if begun 

 early, some measure of success may be met with. First give 

 a purgative of castor oil, foment the joints, and use an 

 anodyne application of simple soap liniment (made by boiling 

 one part of common hard soap with 7 pints of water), 

 and laudanum, equal parts of each. When the abscesses 

 come to a head they must be lanced, and an antiseptic (5 



1 At Bosby in 1886 the Author saw a cross-bred mare, belonging to 

 W. Mould of the Harrington Arms, which was breeding at the age of 

 thirty-two, and had bred twenty foals in twenty consecutive years. All 

 were said to have been good, and a number were weight-carrying hunters. 



2 Cowe of Mains, Chirnside, possessed a mare (nearly Thoroughbred), 

 which in 1886, at the age of twenty-three years, "held" to a cart horse 

 after repeated trials extending over several years with Thoroughbreds. 

 In 1887, however, she was successfully served by a Thoroughbred. Had 

 it not been for the breaking of a leg which ended fatally, she might have 

 continued to breed for years. 



