262 BREEDING 



promoting precocity or retarding puberty. Well-bred animals are more 

 precocious in this direction than those which are under-bred, and an abun- 

 dance of rich stimulating food, easy labour, and comfortable surroundings 

 expedite the development of the procreative faculties. The male and 

 female horse are capable of breeding at two years of age, but instances are 

 on record in which yearling colts and fillies have copulated successfully, and 

 foals have been born before the parents were two years old. 



Tlie duration of the period during which procreation is possible is also 

 dependent upon circumstances connected w^ith breed, management, and 

 surroundings. The stallion may continue potent until over thirty years of 

 age, and mares have been known to produce foals when twenty-eight, 

 thirty-two, and thirty-eight years old. 



But it may be accepted as a rule that stallions and mares are at their 

 best from four or five years, until they are about sixteen years old. When 

 immature from youthfulness, or stale and decrepit from old age, the 

 progeny of such animals cannot be expected to have the constitutional 

 stamina or perfection of form of stock derived from parents in the bloom 

 of life. 



The mare is usually " in season " (ready to receive the stallion) from 

 April to June, or even later, and the periods when conception is likely to 

 take place during that time recur about once a fortnight or three weeks, 

 and are very brief in some mares — only of two or three days' duration. 

 The indications of this condition (gestrum) are generally well marked: 

 the animal is usually irritable or sluggish, and less able to sustain severe 

 exertion; the sensibility is increased, and the appetite is more or less in 

 abeyance or capricious, and thirst is often present; there is a tendency to 

 seek the company of other horses, especially males; attempts to pass urine 

 are frequent, and there are spasmodic ejections of a whitish fluid, accom- 

 panied by movements of the vulva. While these symptoms continue, the 

 mare will readily receive "service", and fecundation then most certainly 

 occurs, — though it must be remarked that they often persist continuously 

 in certain mares, and " service " does not allay them, neither does pregnancy 

 result from such service, as they are mostly due to an abnormal condition 

 of the ovaries. (See page 180 of this volume.) 



When conception has taken place, these symptoms, as a rule, do not 

 recur at these usual pei'iods, and are not witnessed during the whole time 

 of pregnancy, — though now and again instances are noted in which one or 

 more of them are observed, and pregnant mares will sometimes accept the 

 stallion, instead of repelling him, as is usually the case, though he rarely 

 shows any desire to have intercourse with mares when they are in foal. 



Wlien conception has taken place, the signs of heat or rutting, as has 



