34 THE HORSE 



necessary if a happy termination of the troubles of a 

 mare are expected ; but^ on the other hand^, it will be 

 seen in the following suggestions that an eye should 

 be kept on the mare, and this will necessitate a 

 certain amount of extra attention, and probably a few 

 nights of broken rest for her groom. It is also a 

 generally accepted fact amongst horse breeders — as 

 it is amongst the raisers of all other varieties of 

 stock — that the higher bred the mare is the more 

 susceptible she is to the dangers of parturition; 

 whereas the lower class animals usually suffer very 

 little inconvenience, relatively speaking. 



The first point to be considered is the best time 

 for putting the mare to the horse, and it may here 

 be incidentally mentioned that the period of gestation 

 is as near as possible forty-eight w^eeks^ a few 

 days before or after the precise date being not 

 infrequent. The production of a very early foal is 

 not desirable except in the case of racehorses_, which, 

 like all other members of the equine race that 

 appear in public, whether at shows or elsewhere, 

 take their age from January i, and are therefore 

 required to be foaled as early as possible in order 

 that the extra few months of existence may render 

 them bigger than they might otherwise be, when 

 opposed to later foaled youngsters of the same year. 

 Whether this policy of early breeding is a desirable 

 one or the reverse in the case of racehorses^ this is 

 not the place to discuss ; it is sufficient to state that 

 the practice prevails. There is no necessity, how- 

 ever, but rather the reverse, for condemning it so far 

 as the breeding of ordinary horses is concerned. 

 April or May are by far the best months for the 

 breeder of the ride or drive or average utility horse^ 

 be it heavy or light, to try and arrange as the period 

 of his youngster's entry into the world ; and, to ensure 

 this, the mare should visit the selected staUion either 

 in the May or June of the preceding year. 



