CHAPTER VII. 

 STALLION MANAGEMENT. 



It lias previously been stated that the Foaling Season is 

 the most important and also the most anxious time for the 

 stud groom. Nevertheless, the Covering Season, which in 

 practice runs concurrently with the later stages of the other, 

 brings its own crop of vexations and worries, such as the 

 mares continually "breaking," i.e., coming in season at 

 regular intervals after services by the stallion, or not coming 

 into " use " at all, and persistently refusing all advances by 

 the stallion. 



The methods that should be adopted to ensure the brood 

 mare being in the best possible breeding condition have 

 already been described. I will now give a few hints on the 

 subject of getting stallions fit to do their part efficiently. 

 At the outset I may state it is my firm conviction that when 

 a mare fails to get in foal, nine times out of ten the blame 

 must be laid on the mare and not on the stallion. If the 

 reader will consider this proposition carefully, I think he 

 will admit the reasonableness of it. For instance, there are 

 practically only four causes of unfruitfulness in stallions, 

 viz., senile decay, congenital impotence, excessive services, 

 and want of exercise. With good management, the two 

 latter faults do not exist, while the two former defects carry 

 their own condemnation and sentence of banishment. On 

 the mare's side, there are the many ailments of the genera- 

 tive organs, arising either from injuries sustained at 

 parturition, or constitutional causes, fractiousness at cover- 

 ing time, " false prides," and last, but certainly not least, 

 abortion during the first two months of pregnancy, when, 



