TREATMENT WHEN IN FOAL. 123 



January or February, varying, of course, with the time of foaling. 

 All mares are the better for slow work up to within two months 

 of foaling; but they should not be ridden or driven so fast as to 

 occasion exliuiistion. Cart-mares are generally used to within a 

 few days of their time, taking care to keep them at light work and 

 to avoid straining them. With these precautions, if the legs keep 

 tolerably sound, a mare may be made to earn her keep for nine 

 months out of the eleven which are the duration of her pregnancy. 

 The time of sending the mare to the horse will vary with the 

 purposes for which her produce is intended. If for racing, it is 

 desired that she shall foal as soon as possible after the first of 

 January; and as she carries her foal about eleven months, the first 

 time of her being " in use" after the first of February is the period 

 chosen for her. All other horses take their age from the first of 

 May ; and as this is the time when the young grass begins to be 

 forward enough for the use of the mare, the breeder is not anxious 

 to get his half-bred foals dropped much before -that time. As, 

 however, mares are very uncertain animals, he will do well to take 

 advantage of the first opportunity after March, as by putting off 

 the visit to the horse, he may be disappointed altogether, or the 

 foal may be dropped so late, that winter sets in before it has ac- 

 quired strength to bear it. These remarks apply to maiden mares 

 only ; those which have dropped a foal are generally put to the 

 horse nine or ten days afterwards, when almost every mare is in 

 season. For this reason, valuable thorough-bred mares are often 

 sent to foal at the place where the sire stands who is intended to 

 be used next time. The travelling to him so soon after foaling 

 would be injurious to both the dam and her foal, and hence the 

 precaution I have named is adopted. The mare then remains to 

 be tried at intervals of nine days, and when she is stinted, the foal 

 is strong enough to bear any length of journey with impunity. 

 Mares and their foals commonly travel by road twenty miles, or 

 even more, for this purpose; but they do not often exceed that 

 distance, and about fifteen miles a day is quite as much as a nine 

 days' old foal can compass without injury, and that done very 

 quietly, the mare being led at a slow pace all the way. 



TREATMENT WHEN IN FOAL. 

 When the mare is in foal, if not intended to be kept at 

 work, she should be turned out in good pasture; but it should not 

 be so rich and succulent as to disagree with her stomach, or make 

 her unwieldy from fat. The former mistake is a constant cause 

 of miscarriage, the bowels becoming relaxed from the improper 

 nature of the food. On the other hand, if it is not sufficiently 

 good, the mare will become thin, and will starve her foal in its 

 growth. Mares that have been corned highly all their lives should 



