Xll INTRODUCTION. 



speed ; some prefer large mares, others of medium height. Large mares are not pre- 

 ferable because they are large, but if well and truly shaped, from running blood, 

 there is no objection to size ; as a rule, the deep-chested, large-bodied, short-legged 

 mares with large pelvis, with wide hips and good length, from 15 to 15| hands high, 

 have proved the best and most successful brood mares. The mare, above all things, 

 should be good-tempered and free from all hereditary defects and disease. It does not 

 follow that a mare which may be blemished from some unforseen cause, may not be as 

 good a brood mare as one entirely sound. Mares in good health will breed until 

 twenty-five or thirty years old, but they require attention, air and exercise, with 

 proper shelter from storms and bad weather, with sufficient food to keep them always 

 in good strong condition not beefy fat, as nothing is more fatal to fruitfulness than 

 obesity. Unless kept in good strong condition, the foals are apt to bi weak and 

 weedy at birth ; the time to make a race-horse is when the foal is in embryo ; in the 

 vernacular to make a race-horse you must do so before he is born. Stallions, to do 

 themselves justice, must have plenty of exercise in the open air ; if they cannot be 

 trusted in an open paddock they should be ridden three or four 

 hours each day. Idleness results in indigestion, loss of vigor, and 

 flatulence, which often prove fatal. The colts, from the day they are 

 foaled should be fed, if the dam does not afford sufficient milk to insure speedy and 

 healthy growth, and broken at weaning time, which should be the last of September 

 or first of October. It is a capital plan to feed the colts in pens for a month or six 

 week* before weaning them, and we are decidedly of the opinion that foals which 

 come the last of March or first of April have full as much advantage as those foaled 

 earlier before the grasses necessary to afford an ample supply of milk from the dam 

 arrive at perfection. Those who believe in having early foals should always sow down 

 in the early fall a patch of good rye for the use of the mares and foals. Stallions, 

 mares, and colts all require plenty of f resh air and exercise ; air and light is life 

 darkness, death. Horses, and particularly colts, from their natural activity, require 

 more exercise than any other animals, and when properly given, is productive of th e 

 most salutary effects. It is the more necessary to colts highly fed than to those 

 stinted or fed moderately. It enables you to preserve them in a perfect state of 

 health. The food is converted into wholesome nourishment, the circulation of the 

 blood promoted, and all the secretions and discharges facilitated. It invigorates the 

 whole system, gives additional flow to the spirits, adds firmness and strength to the 

 muscles, increases the firmness, texture and growth of the bone, promotes insensible 

 perspiration, assists digestion and prevents flatulence and prepares the system for 

 fresh supplies of aliment. It enables the animal to endure fatigue. In fact without 

 constant and habitual exercise no animal can enjoy perfect health. High ieeding 

 without proper exercise produces many evils, such as indigestion, flatulency, cos- 

 tiveness ; the circulation becomes languid, incurable diseases follow, and frequently 

 death terminates the scene. The stallions and mares thus treated, whose blood is 

 pure and uncontaminated, and whose conformation, strength, activity and vigor are 

 conspicuous in every movement, must impart to their offspring not only sound con- 

 stitutions, but speed, native fire and energy, which are necessary to support them un- 

 der the severest exercise of their powers. With the variety of soil, perennial grasses, 

 and favorable climate, the Americans should excel all nations in producing the most 

 perfect and the grandest of the equine race. 



