DISEASES AND TBEATMENT OF THE HORSE. 123 



the sponge into the neck of the womb with your hand and squeeze 

 out the medicine around the neck of the womb. Leave the mare 

 quiet for an hour after this, then pass in your hand and you will 

 find that the medicine has relaxed the fibres in the neck of the 

 womb and you can easily open it with your fingers. After the 

 neck of the womb is dilated, or opened, put the mare to the 

 horse, and you will generally find she gets in foal. If it is a 

 case where the neck of the womb is turned off to one side, try and 

 straighten it with your hand and have the mare immediately put 

 to the horse. If it is a case where the ovaries are diseased, there 

 can be nothing done. Sometimes after you have put the mare to 

 one horse several times, and she does not get in foal, by chang- 

 ing the horse will often catch her. Mares will start to breed as 

 young as two years old and will breed as old as twenty years. 

 Some have been known to breed older than this. 



CHAPTER IX. 



FOALING (PARTURITION) AND THE DISEASES 

 FOLLOWING IT. 



The mare, after being put to the horse and gets in foal, usually 



carries her foal eleven months, but some vary a few days less, 



while others may go as long as twelve months. The covering- 



around the foal is called the cleaning, placenta, or after-birth, and 



is attached to the inside of the womb to the little processes called 



villi, connecting the after-birth, and the foal is the navel string or 



umbilical cord. Between the foal and the after-birth is a fluid 



(the use of which is to protect the foal from being injured while 



its mother is moving around). This fluid is called the amoniotic 



fluid. 



HOW TO TELL WHEN A MARE IS WITH FOAL. 



The mare becomes quieter in disposition, and thrives better ; 

 the belly gradually becomes distended, and at the end of the sixth 

 or seventh month, after the mare has taken a drink of cold water, 

 the foal will move around. On account of the foal lying to the 

 left side, the moving of it can be noticed plainer on that side of 

 the mare than it can be on the right side. Also, another way to 

 tell is by oiling the hand and passing it into the passage and find 

 out if the neck of the womb is sealed and tight. In some cases 



