CHAPTER III. 

 MANAGEMENT OF FOALING MAEES. 



There is no arbitrary end or beginning, strictly speak- 

 ing, to the year's work on a stud farm. Each phase 

 overlaps the other, forming a complete cycle. A commence- 

 ment may be made with the most important, and certainly 

 the most anxious, time for the stud groom the foaling sea- 

 son. Ability and intelligence applied at this period spell 

 success, with its concomitant pardonable pride of the servant 

 and satisfaction of the employer. It is the man whose whole 

 heart is wrapped up in his profession, who is an enthusiastic 

 lover of horses, who begrudges neither time nor labour in 

 personal attention to minutest details, who will, as in all 

 other walks of life, reap the fullest measure of success. 



Parturition, or the act of bringing forth young, is, in 

 the realms of untrammelled Nature, whether amongst the 

 lower animals or the uncivilised human tribes, a compara- 

 tively simple and painless incident. It is only when the 

 absolutely perfect plans of Nature have been obstructed and 

 spoilt by man's stupidity, or well-meaning ignorance, that 

 trouble and suffering ensue. For Nature invariably enacts 

 a stern penalty where her laws are outraged. Therefore, if in 

 our dealings with God's creatures we conscientiously and 

 intelligently study the ways of Nature, and apply the 

 lessons thus learned, so far as altered conditions and sur- 

 roundings permit, we may legitimately hope to command in 

 our efforts as full a measure of success as it is in the power of 

 imperfect mortals to attain. 



