BREEDING THE TROTTER 



arrival. The better health the brood-mare enjoys 

 the better foal she will produce. She should be 

 kept in the best possible condition the year round. 

 By that I do not mean that she should carry a lot 

 of flesh, because a fleshy mare is liable to cramp 

 her foal and it will come small, crooked and weak. 

 There is a happy medium. I prefer to have the 

 mare a trifle thin than too fleshy. 



The care of a brood-mare is not a subject that 

 can be treated at random. We must start at 

 some period of her existence and follow her 

 through a year of the attention she requires. It 

 would be natural, perhaps, to start with the act 

 of mating her with the stallion and follow her 

 through a year till she foals. However, I intend 

 to treat the mare from a standpoint slightly dif- 

 ferent. So many mares are purchased when 

 already in foal that I shall take up the mare just 

 previous to the time of foaling and speak of the 

 care she and the colt should receive up to the time 

 the foal is weaned. At this point the weanling 

 will be dropped and its further care treated in 

 another chapter. I will continue with the mare, 

 however, during the winter up to the point when 

 she is again ready to foal. In the proper place 

 mention will also be made of the correct time, 

 after the mare has foaled (nine days), to breed her 

 again. I will also outline the method of trying 

 mares in practice at Village Farm. After these 

 practical points have been covered I will devote 

 a little attention to some of the general theories 

 of breeding. 



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