STALLIONS, BROOD MARES AND FOALS. 171 



sufficiency of daily exercise, especially needful for mares 

 which are not suckling a foal. 



When intelligently organized, in regard to the different 

 pe'riods of gestation, ordinary farm work is exceedingly 

 beneficial to both mare and foetus. Throughout the whole 

 period it is better that the labor should be continued and 

 uniform than violent or irregular. Shafting heavy loads, 

 especially when much backing or turning is required, should 

 not be permitted. Toward the end of pregnancy all work 

 necessitating unequal movements, or even excessive effort, 

 should be discontinued, and with the appearance of the 

 signs that parturition may be expected to take place within 

 a week or ten days it is advisable, but not essential, that 

 work should be entirely suspended. Pregnant mares should 

 be stabled with due regard to security against annoyance, 

 compression, or injury by other horses, and especially 

 guarded against the accident of being "cast" in their stalls. 

 Medical or surgical treatment should, so far as possible, be 

 avoided; when absolutely necessary, the utmost possible care 

 in its administration is required. 



The food and feeding of mares in foal are of great and im- 

 portant interest, the science and practice whereof must be 

 carefully studied by breeders who would bs successful in 

 maintaining their mares healthy throughout the period of 

 gestation, and over the act of foaling, and reap the reward 

 of stout and vigorous foals. The quantity and nutritive 

 quality of provender supplied to a pregnant mare should be 

 in strict accord with her individual requirements; the estab- 

 lishment of a just balance between food and the demands for 

 it can be determined by an accurate perception of condition, 

 as exemplified by the possession of vigor and evidences of 

 efficient nutrition. 



The two opposite extremes of obesity or plethora and 

 excessive leanness or debility are to be avoided; the former 

 predisposes to abortion and difficult labors, the latter (of the 

 two the least evil) prejudicially influences the nutrition of 

 the foetus and deteriorates the subsequent secretion of milk. 

 Grass, unaided by artificial food, is insufficient for the suste- 

 nance of breeding mares subjected to labor; to insure the 



