CHAPTER V1I1. 



COVERING TIME. 



By way of preface to my notes on the actual business of 

 covering mares, I should perhaps again point out that the 

 common practice of starting the covering season on February 

 15th is a direct defiance of the laws of Nature. Nature 

 never intended that a foal should be born on January 15th, 

 when frost, snow, and cold winds are seasonable, and grass 

 is conspicuous by its absence; nor, again, that the mare 

 should come in " season " at such an inclement period of the 

 year. This is another reason why, when mares prove 

 troublesome to get " stinted " in February and March, the 

 stallion should not be blamed for the failure. Most stud 

 grooms have had experience of cold late Springs, when the 

 mares either refused the advances of the stallion absolutely, 

 or after one service pass all their "trials" satisfactorily 

 and are thought to be safely in foal. Days pass and the ser- 

 vices of the stallion are not required, and the stud groom 

 is apt to indulge in the dangerous pastime of " counting 

 chickens before they are hatched " ; when, lo and behold, the 

 weather undergoes a change as sudden as complete, and in 

 the genial, balmy temperature the mares start " breaking " 

 in all directions as though an epidemic had seized them. 

 Then the stallion is kept very busy indeed for a spell, and 

 usually with more successful results than followed his 

 previous efforts. 



Fighting Nature entails receiving some hard knocks. 

 The modern two-year-old race-horse is an artificial product. 



