Covering Time. 95 



If I have to grow a horse that is required to race at two 

 years of age, I should prefer that it be dropped at 12.5 a.m. 

 on January 1st. Given proper facilities as to stabling, and 

 straw-yard accommodation, I would guarantee that this 

 January foal would not lose the four months' start it had 

 obtained over a May 1st foal. Which of the respective dams 

 of these foals would prove the easiest to get in foal again is 

 quite another story. Under the Rules of Racing*, as is well 

 known, the age of the thoroughbred horse is calculated from 

 January 1st of the year in which it is foaled, i.e., a foal born 

 on December 31st would rank under the Rules as one year 

 old the following day a calamity that would entail its 

 carrying the weight of a three-year-old in weight-for-age 

 races, while still only a two-year-old. This, of course, would 

 be a handicap sufficient to blight the Turf career of anything 

 less than a " horse of the century." As the fact of a mare 

 foaling three weeks before her proper time is far from an 

 uncommon event, it is obvious that in having a mare covered 

 before February 15th a tremendous risk is run of having 

 that most unwelcome of all " little strangers " a December 

 foal. 



I have already hinted that " Covering Time " runs 

 " Foaling Time " very close in regard to the demands it 

 makes on the stud groom's time. A great deal will depend 

 on his good judgment and management whether the subse- 

 quent foal crop is satisfactory or the reverse. Much has 

 been said and written as to the relative values of theory and 

 practice; personally, I am convinced that a little study of 

 the theory of the intercourse of the equine sexes will be help- 

 ful when the practical part of the business has to be taken 

 in hand. Let us see what happens when the stallion is 



* South of the Equator the age of a thoroughbred is dated from 

 August 1st. 



