198 TEACHING YEARLINGS. 



times in the course of the year ; if the weather is 

 hot (to use a common expression) they become 

 very keen a-horsing. During the time they re- 

 main in this state, they are more or less debili- 

 tated and unhappy for the want of intercourse 

 with the horse. They frequently turn their heads 

 as far round in the stall as they can, looking dis- 

 consolate about them. They often refuse their 

 food, or rather they eat but little for the time 

 they continue in season. The groom cannot, 

 therefore, send them along in their work as he 

 could wish. When this happened to mares 

 near the time of their running, they were usually 

 considered to be seven or ten pounds below their 

 proper form. Indeed, however capable they may 

 have been of winning, it has sometimes been 

 found difficult for a jockey to make them do so, 

 in consequence of their being so much disposed 

 to lean or hang to the horse or horses with whom 

 they may be running ; and thus occasionally have 

 mares lost races in which they have been en- 

 gaged. When it is known that mares are thus 

 so repeatedly troublesome in training, the better 

 way is to stint them in the spring; they then go 

 on very well. These are my reasons for recom- 

 mending fillies to be invariably kept in stables 

 by themselves ; nor should mares (as of course 



