60 THE HOUSE BOOK. 



Whenever a mare is brought to be bred hand 

 the owner of her one of these cards, and when he 

 has decided under which contract he desires to 

 breed her make him sign his name to that partic- 

 ular agreement. Then fill in the other side of the 

 card. Always be sure to get the dates down 

 and that they agree on both sides of the card. 

 When the owner of a mare signs such a con- 

 tract he is held for the payment undertaken. 

 A man who will not sign such a document is 

 usually a good one to let take his mare to some 

 other horse. To protect himself in an insur- 

 ance contract a stallion owner should make it 

 plain that the return of the mare is the busi- 

 ness of her owner. Most breeding on farms is 

 done by insurance. The courts have held that 

 if a man breeds his mare by insurance he is not 

 bound to return her if she fails to settle at the 

 first leap or at any other leap. In a plain in- 

 surance contract the stallion owner takes his 

 chances of the mare being got with foal the first 

 leap and he gets a higher price for it if she 

 does. If the mare does not settle there is no 

 duty imposed on the mare owner to pay any- 

 thing or- to bring her back. If on the other 

 hand it is plainly stated in the contract that 

 mares bred to insure and not regularly returned 

 must be paid for at season's rates, they will 

 come back until they do settle or the season 

 ends, or their owners must pay. 



Stallion fees are too low in farming regions 



