316 NAVIX ox THE HORSE. 



ger. She has peculiar need of additional feed, as the rapid 

 groAvtli of the embrj^o is a material tax on her system, calling 

 for an increased quantity of nutriment. There are two ani- 

 mals to support on the food of one. This must not be over- 

 looked, or abortion will often be the consequence. Another 

 cause of abortion, which I will mention, is showing a mare 

 food which she likes, and has been in the habit of eating pre- 

 vious to this time, and not letting her have it. Seeing or even 

 smelling such food is dangerous. I saw a mare taken to a 

 mill in the month of November, and hitched on a floor near a 

 heap of bran, which she tried very hard to reach, but could not. 

 Soon after being taken off the floor, she took sick and had a 

 visible appearance of abortion; but a veterinarian who was 

 present, and had seen the whole transaction, took some of the 

 bran and fed it to the mare, and the spasms, or throes, left her, 

 and never returned again until the full term. I have known 

 other similar instances. Feeding hogs by the place wdiere 

 mares not grain-fed are kept, is ultimately dangerous. 



If a mare once slinks her coll, she will be very likely to do 

 so at the same period of her pregnancy the next 3^ear, and 

 continue the habit, especially if any thing like the same provo 

 cation occurs. But if she slinks,, or aborts, from a hurt, a 

 strain, or some disease, she will not be so liable to continue it 

 as a habit. The best remedy I have ever found, when a mare 

 shows symptoms of abortion, is to take the feathers of wild 

 birds, (pigeon feathers are the best), and burn them on a hot 

 j^an, or iron, holding them so that she can inhale, or breathe, 

 the smoke. 



If a mare is in the habit of slinking her foal, she should 

 not be kept in the same lot with other breedmg-mares ; for, 

 though it may seem very strange, the act of one mare slink- 

 ing will be almost certain to cause the others to do the same. 

 This is the result of sympathy — some writers say of imagin- 

 ation. But I rely for its explanation on that great sympathy 

 whose delicate and mysterious chain binds not only the differ 



