HUNTERS 



buy them is in the Spring of the year, say, 

 March, so that the mares could be served 

 in the same Spring. Early foals are an advan- 

 tage, and when such can be 'produced, it is 

 expedient to do so. During the first two 

 months or so, both mare and foal, under 

 favourable conditions, do very well in a roomy 

 loose-box, in fact, very much better than out of 

 doors, when the days and nights have not yet 

 become warm. The general management of 

 brood mares comprises grazing them on liberal 

 pasturage, from early spring until October, when 

 they should be brought up and housed in com- 

 fortable loose-boxes, preferably those in which 

 they are intended to foal. During the time that 

 they are in the house, a fairly liberal system of 

 feeding should be followed, the forage to com- 

 prise crushed oats and bran, cut hay and straw, 

 good sound hay, together with a few carrots or 

 other roots, decreasing the bulky food as the 

 period of gestation approaches its termination, 

 the normal period of which is forty-eight weeks, 

 but it must be borne in mind that normal foaling 

 may occur a week prior, or subsequent to, 

 the specified time. The moral to be drawn from 



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