MANAGEMENT OF BEOOD MAEES. 71 



is not grazed closely after the autumn rains 

 come, but allowed to grow rank and thick, it 

 will cure on the ground and prove a great at- 

 traction in cold weather, even if the snowfall is 

 rather heavy. Mares will do a lot of hustling to 

 get such herbage in winter. An ideal pasture 

 for this purpose has trees enough on it to form 

 some shelter. 



Brood mares should be kept out of stalkfields. 

 Cornstalks which are left to leach and blacken 

 and rot as they grew are indigestible at the best, 

 and there is usually a lot of smut (ergot) and 

 other harmful matter, the nature of which is 

 not clearly understood, available in a cornfield. 

 If a pasture such as has been described can not 

 be provided, free range of some sort must be. 



Brood mares are usually quarrelsome and 

 many accidents are due to their innate meanness 

 of disposition. One of the commonest sights on 

 a large farm in winter is some cross old mare, 

 with her ears laid back, rushing wickedly at 

 some unoffending companion and chasing her 

 off, for no other reason than that the ill-natured 

 one is the boss. Often if some show of resist- 

 ance is made, the aggressor will whirl and plant 

 her heels in some more or less vulnerable part 

 of the mare attacked. On account of this sort 

 of disposition being common in pregnant mares 

 they should have abundant freedom whenever 

 any large number of them are turned together. 



