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period is supposed to be favourable to conception, but should the mare 

 be low and weak, I should prefer waiting two or three weeks, allowing 

 her corn mashes in the interim. LuCern grass in this case is exceedingly 

 beneficial. The wise Solomon saith, the barren womb is never satis- 

 fied, and indeed barren mares will generally accept the Horse as often 

 as you please to allow him, a circumstance which affords hope of a 

 mare difficult in that respect. It is a general rule, subject to its excep- 

 tions, that broken- Avinded mares are incapable of breeding. I have 

 tried several times for the exception without success. A farmer 

 of Hampshire, in former days, was fortunate enough to meet with 

 it. From an aged and broken-winded cart mare, he bred a whole 

 team. 



Breeding of Horses, being a concern which involves considerable pro- 

 perty, and affords abundantmatter of interesting curiosity, a regularand 

 comprehensive stud book, ought to be kept by the head groom, under 

 the frequent superintendance of the proprietor. The proper contents 

 of such a book will be the pedigrees of all stallions and mares engaged 

 which are not publicly known. The places and persons from which 

 new purchases have been received, with the names and descriptions of 

 the Horses, and dates of their arrival ; the same as to sale or departure. 

 Register of deaths or accidents ; of each cover of the mare, her name 

 or description and age ; her reckoning or barrenness; of the dropping 

 of the foals and their description; of their weaning. With useful and 

 practical remarks on the constitutions, and habits of the stallions, mares 

 and foals ; particularly, the symptoms in the mare, which precede con- 

 ception, abortion and delivery, and those in the young stock, which 

 indicate the approach of reduced condition or disease. 



The period of gestation in the mare, is, according to Blundeville, 

 a full year, or at least eleven months and ten days. In this he is very 

 accurate, understanding the year to consist of the irregular months, three 

 hundred and sixty-five days. A mare with me, put to the Horse the 

 last day of the month, foaled on the last day but one, of the same 

 month, going three hundred and sixty three-days. It was her first foal; 

 with which they generally go longer than with the succeeding, if they 

 breed every year. They also perhaps go longer with a colt foal than 



a filly. 



