BREEDING. Ill 



Cesarewitch Course (from the starting post of T. M. M. to tlie 



eud of the Flat) ..... 



Cambridgeshire Course (last mile and a distance, straight) 

 Suffolk Stakes Course (last mile and a half R. C.) 

 Bedford Stakes Course (last 5 fur. of A. F.) 

 From Starting-Post of last half of Ab. M. to T. Y. C. winning 



post ....... 



From Old Betting-Post on Criterion Course to the end of B. C. 



iVom the above it will be seen tliat great variety of distances is adopted 

 ranging- from 1 furlong 143 yards to 4 miles 1 furlong 173 yards, well cal- 

 culated to test the general speed and endurance of every class of race-borse. 



A mare is capable of breeding at two years old, btit should not be 

 allowed to do so before three or four years old. Some have injudi- 

 ciously commenced at two years old, before her form and strength are 

 sufficiently developed, and with the development of which this early 

 breeding will materially interfere. If a mare does little more than farm- 

 work, she may continue to be bred from until she is nearly twenty ; but if 

 she has been hardly worked and bears the marks of it, let her have been 

 what she may in her youth, she will deceive the expectation of the breeder 

 in her old age. The mare usually comes into heat in the early part of 

 the sprmg. She is said to go with foal eleven months, but there is some- 

 times a strange irregailarity about this. Some have been known to foal 

 five weeks earHer, while the time of others has been extended six weeks 

 beyond the eleven months. We may, however, take eleven months as the 

 average time. 



From the time of covering, to within a few days of the expected period 

 of foahng, the cart-mare may be kept at moderate labour, not only with- 

 out injury, but mth decided advantage. It ■v^^ll then be prudent to release 

 her from work, and keep her near home, and under the frequent insjjection 

 of some careful person. 



When nearly half the time of pregnancy has elapsed, the mare should 

 have a Httle better food. She should be allowed one or two feeds of corn 

 in the day. This is about the period when they are accustomed to shnk 

 their foals, or when abortion occurs : the eye of the owner should, there- 

 fore, be frequently upon them. Good feeduig and moderate exercise will 

 be the best preventives of this mishap. The mare that has once aborted 

 is Uable to a repetition of the accident, and therefore should never be 

 suffered to be with other mares between the fourth and fifth months ; for 

 such is the power of imagination or of sympathy in the mare, that if one 

 suffers abortion, others in the same pastnre Avill too often share the same 

 fate. Farmers wash, and pauit, and tar their stables, to prevent some 

 supposed infection ; — the infection Hes in the imagination. 



The thorough-bred mare — the stock being intended for sporting pui-- 

 poses — should be kept quiet and apart from other horses, after the first 

 four or five months. When the period of parturition is di-awing near, 

 she should be watched, and shut uj^ during the night in a safe yard or 

 loose box. 



If the mare, whether of the pure or common breed, be thus taken care 

 of and be in good health while in foal, little danger will attend the act of 

 parturition. K there is false presentation of the foetus, or difficulty in 

 producing it, it will be better to have recourse to a well-informed prac- 

 titioner, than to injure the mother by the violent and injurious attempts 

 that are often made to relieve her. 



The parturition being over, the mare should be turned into some well- 

 sheltered pasture, with a hovel or shed to run into when she pleases ; and 

 as, supposing that she has foaled in April, the grass is scanty, she should 



