STALLIONS, BROOD MARES AND FOALS. 151 

 THE PRODUCTIVE PERIOD IN BROOD MARES. 



The most fertile period in the mare's life is 

 usually at from five to fifteen years of age. 

 They may in exceptional cases be put to breed- 

 ing as early as at tw.o years old, but I do not 

 recommend such a course as it seriously inter- 

 feres with a symmetrical development. If 

 from any cause a two-year-old filly has been 

 served by the stallion and become pregnant it 

 will be every way better to let her pass over 

 her third year without breeding, so that she 

 will not produce her second foal until she is 

 five years old; but a well-developed three-year- 

 old may be safely put to the horse, and she may 

 then be kept at breeding without intermission 

 so long as she remains fertile. At about twelve 

 years the reproductive powers of some mares 

 will begin to wane, but a large proportion of 

 them are quite as reliable breeders up to about 

 fifteen years of age as at any earlier period, 

 especially if they have been kept at breeding 

 from their maturity. Above this age they usu- 

 ally become more uncertain; and regular breed- 

 ers well up in "the teens" are comparatively 

 rare. There have been, however, well-authen- 

 ticated instances of mares up to twenty-six 

 years of age producing healthy, living foals. 

 Old Fanny Cook, the dam of the noted trot- 

 ting stallions Daniel Lambert and Woodward's 



