BREEDING. 



313 



the cause of this, as there is no remedy or preventive for it, 

 only to let the mare have ease and peace, to allow nature to 

 fulfill her allotted functions. There can be no doubt, however, 

 that after a mare has been a few weeks with foal, moderate 

 work will do no injury, but will rather be of service to her. 

 She may do farm-work up to the time of foaling, but must 

 never be placed in a situation where she will be at all likely 

 to receive severe jolts, kicks, or any other violence. Another 

 evil to the conception is turning mares out with string-proud, 

 or badly castrated, horses, to be teased by these pests. This 

 is very pernicious to their conception. On this the farmer 

 needs no theory, as the best preventive of the evil is good 

 fences to keep these fellows away from his breeding-mares. 

 To show the importance of attention to this point, I will 

 state a few cases which have come under my observation. A 

 neighbor of mine put a fine gray mare to a horse. She was 

 proved on the regular trial day, and showed all signs of con- 

 ception. About three weeks after being served, she stood 

 dozing by a fence, and the owner coming up, thinking her sick, 

 started her rather suddenly. The fright so shocked her nerv- 

 ous system that she sickened, lay down, and cast the embryo. 

 Another, in the same township, aborted by a horse teasing 

 her. I knew a gentleman who put a mare that had bred 

 several colts; but at this time, and also the year following, 

 she was grazed in a pasture adjoining one in which a string- 

 proud horse was kept, and, of course, was teased by him. The 

 consequence was, she had no colt for two years. On being 

 asked my opinion of the cause of this, I went to see the mare, 

 knowing that bad treatment or debility of the system must 

 have given rise to the difiiculty. (Of the latter difficulty I 

 shall speak fully in another part of this work.) When I 

 arrived, I ascertained the above facts. The mare was at once 

 removed from her tormentor, and for a number of years fol- 

 lowing never failed to breed. I knew another mare to be 

 grazed in a field back of the stable in which the horse was 



