10 



previous to or after foaling, it should be to a place free of all 

 danger to the foal. 



If no suitable paddock is convenient for the mare and foal, an 

 out-house, or, still better, an open shed, should be set apart for 

 them. 



After the mare shows indications that parturition is at hand, she 

 should be watched, but not disturbed. The most reliable indication 

 is, that at the point of the teats there will be observed a waxy- 

 exudation. Sometimes the milk will drop from the teats ; when 

 this appears, foaling will usually take place mthin forty-eight hours. 

 The mare is seldom long in labour, and the foal is generally dropped 

 when no one is present. The mare should be disturbed as little as 

 possible. Occasionally the foal-bed requires to be broken to allow 

 the foal to breathe. 



The parturition of mares is generally very easy, and they seldom 

 require more assistance than any groom of common acquaintance 

 with such cases can afford. 



After the foal has been dropped and the mare has licked it all 

 over, a bucket of warm gruel should be given to her, and for the 

 first two or three days warm water, with some mashes with bruised 

 corn in them. 



After foaling, the mare will have had her warm drink, she will 

 then have an aperient, four drachms of aloes. 



The foal, if strong, will gain the use of its limbs within two to 

 five hours of being dropped. It readily finds its way to the teats ; 

 sometimes, however, the bag is so tight that the foal does not readily 

 catch the teats. The dam occasionally, from an over exciteability, 

 prevents the foal from sucking ; in such cases the foal should be 

 assisted by drawing a little milk out of the udder, and kept in posi- 

 tion to suck ; and, if essentially requisite, a halter may be put upon 

 the mare to hold her steady for the first and perhaps for the second 

 time the foal sucks. If there is a scarcity of milk, the mare should 

 receive bran mashes, boiled linseed, hay, &c. — anything, indeed, to 

 increase the flow of milk. If this cannot be effected, the foal may 

 be reared on cow milk. 



The mare should be disturbed as little as possible, and persons 

 with whom she is not familiar should not go near her for the first 

 few days. 



On the third day the mare and foal should be allowed to go in 

 and out of the paddock attached to her shed, at will, if the weather 

 is tolerably fine ; but at this early age the foal should be protected 

 from rain, which the woolly coat retains for a long time, and causes 



