150 The Management of Light Horses 



hour. Sometimes he will be longer, but he should be on his legs 

 in an hour and a half at the outside. Naturally a big " gawky " 

 foal is longer in finding his feet than a more compact one. I am 

 convinced from my own experience that it is a mistake to hurry 

 Nature. If a foal is helped on to his legs before his muscles have 

 begun to act, and when, as I have often seen, his legs double up under 

 him, and he falls to the ground, it means exhausting him, and it 

 is decidedly better for a foal to struggle on, gradually finding his 

 strength as he struggles, and find his dam's teat for himself, than 

 for him to be unduly interfered with. The temptation to help the 

 struggling, awkward foal, I admit, is very great, but in the majority 

 of cases it should be resisted. A foal is particularly aggravating to 

 the onlooker when he is endeavouring to find his dam's teat, and 

 her efforts to help him are pathetic. When he first feels the con- 

 tact of her body he " noses " her all over, and his stupidity seems 

 marvellous. But if he is fairly strong and healthy, any attempt to 

 help him makes him only more stupid. Of course sometimes assist- 

 ance must be given him, but more harm is done by over ofificious- 

 ness on the part of the attendant than by postponing assistance too 

 long. It is very natural, I admit, to hurry the foolish young animal 

 on, but it is not very wise. 



There is one thing that the man who is so keen in going to the 

 foal's assistance fails to realize, and that is that any interference 

 with him rouses the mare's instinctive jealousy respecting her off- 

 spring; she resents the interference, and not improbably, and cer- 

 tainly not unnaturally, "goes for" the meddlesome assistant, or 

 threatens to do so. Then she is caught and either held or fastened 

 up, and the foal is caught and taken to her, resisting, of course, all 

 the time. Nothing is so stupid or so stubborn as a foal under such 

 circumstances, and I am quite certain that in the majority of cases 

 the foal would have got its hunger satisfied and have been laid 

 peacefully by the side of its dam much sooner if Nature had been 

 allowed to take her course. 



Mr. Harry Sharpe, who has had a wide experience as a stud 

 groom, and whose book. The Practical Stud Groom, may be com- 

 mended to those who wish for further information on an interesting 

 subject, describes the amusing scene which is frequently taking place 

 in the foaling box. " The mare, her maternal instincts aroused, 

 and misinterpreting the designs upon her foal, places herself be- 

 tween the man and her foal, and, with ears laid back, indicates 

 plainly 'hands off'. This entails calling in another assistant, who, 

 by threats or cajolery, catches the mare. The chief operator then 

 catches the foal, which more often than not, being startled by this 



