150 



delicate. It also has to be suckled by a mare that 

 must continue to grow, and needs all that nature fur- 

 nishes for that purpose. Thus both the dam and 

 foal must be deprived of the full, natural" demands 

 of their systems, and they are both injured for all 

 future time. 



If a mare is well treated through life, allowing 

 her to mature before putting her to breed, she will 

 continue to bring good foals until she is twenty, and 

 some even above that age. But if hard worked and 

 poorly fed, so as to show the effect of such treatment, 

 she cannot be expected to bring and raise as good 

 foals as if she had been otherwise treated. 



The mare is said to go with foal eleven months, 

 or three hundred days ; but fully developed foals 

 have been brought forth five weeks earlier than this, 

 while in other instances mares have carried their 

 foals six weeks beyond this time. Farmers should 

 not lose sight of this in patting their mares, for they 

 should have their colts come at a time when there is 

 some grass, as the mare will do much better not to 

 be confined entirely to dry feed at foaling. Some 

 writers say that from the time a mare is put to the 

 horse, she may be used generally. But from this 

 opinion my own observation and experience constrain 

 me to dissent I insist. that she should be allowed 

 to stand idle until the sensation of her heat, or sea- 

 son, as it is sometimes called, subsides. After con- 

 ception, every mare, if permitted to go free, will 



