216 BREEDING 



it would be strange indeed if the foetus did not suffer in point of size 

 and constitution. Nor does the mischief of this injurious practice end 

 here, for the danger to both dam and foal where any impediment to 

 parturition arises is multiplied manifold, firstly by diminishing the 

 room naturally available for the passage of the foetus, and secondly by 

 lowering the vitality and strength of the dam, and adding to the difficulty 

 of delivery. It is not only in these immediate effects that this practice 

 proves hurtful, but long after it has been discontinued, sterility, or a 

 disposition to abort one or the other is often left behind, while the 

 capacity to reproduce in the offspring that vigour of growth and frame 

 which characterizes the parent is frequently weakened beyond recovery. 



Good general health is unquestionably the bodily condition most 

 conducive to productiveness in the dam and growth in the young, 

 and this state can only be acquired and maintained in its fullest 

 measure by a judicious system of liberal feeding and apportionment of 

 suitable work. It must, however, be recognized that while the former 

 may, and should, be within the reach of all who aspire to horse-breeding, 

 the latter is, for obvious reasons, impossible of universal adoption. Mares 

 kept exclusively for breeding purposes lead a life of idleness in what is 

 usually but erroneously regarded as a natural state. As to pasturing 

 brood-mares much might be said, but it will be sufficient to note the 

 chief points in which it may fail of success. Not the least important of 

 these is the nature of the country. Steep hills and rough ground should 

 certainly be avoided, and especially so where the mares are big and roomy, 

 and in all cases when pregnancy is far advanced. Very naturally, to 

 any suggestion of this kind may be opposed the condition of mountain 

 ponies. Mountain ponies, however, are neither big nor roomy, nor are 

 they highly bred, nor highly fed, nor highly domesticated. Their suscep- 

 tibility to outside impressions cannot be compared with that resulting 

 from the long years of cultivation and artificial treatment of our improved 

 breeds. Besides, there is no evidence to show that even these denizens 

 of the mountains do not suffer as breeding animals from the physical 

 conformation of the country they inhabit. 



Of still greater importance to the well-being of the brood-mare is 

 the nature of the soil from which she draws her sustenance. That best 

 adapted to stud purposes is such as will neither fatten nor starve, but 

 supply a steady growth of herbage of a sound and nutritive character 

 throughout the greater portion of the year. Low-lying, damp situations, 

 where the grass comes sour and rank, where the soil is wet, and dense 

 fogs prevail in the cold nights of spring and autumn, are alike conducive 

 to abortion and prejudicial to health. At all times the winter grazing 



