THE FOALING MARE 37 



should be well covered either with powdered boracic 

 acid or equal parts of iodoform and starch powder, 

 and covered with a piece of carbolized lint or fine 

 tow maintained in its place by a wide cotton bandage 

 round the body. In about a week there will be no 

 more danger. This treatment should be resorted to 

 soon after birth. 



After a month from the birth of the foal, or perhaps 

 three weeks, the mare can be put to gentle work 

 again, but it is not desirable for her own sake or 

 that of the foal that she should begin with too much 

 hard work, or that the pair should be separated for a 

 long time. 



The in-foal mare, and especially if she is worked, 

 should be well fed, but this does not imply that she 

 should be gorged. On the contrary, she only 

 requires enough to keep her in good condition and 

 health, but it often becomes necessary that she 

 requires more to eat than when she was barren, and 

 the quality of her food should be good. If she is 

 not at work she can subsist upon grass alone, but 

 the addition of a little hay and oats is most beneficial 

 all the same, whilst, if she is at work, they are impera- 

 tively necessary. Mashes, or bruised oats or barley 

 mixed with pulped roots may also be given, and just 

 before she is expected to produce her foal, mashes of 

 boiled linseed and bran, to which an ounce of salt 

 has been added, may be offered her. After the foal 

 is born the dam should be allowed three feeds a day 

 of oats and some hay, whilst if she is short of milk 

 or is not on grass, mashes of boiled oats or barley 

 mixed with sugar or treacle may be added to her 

 diet with beneficial results. Water, pure, sweet, and 

 cool, should always be within the reach of the foaling 

 mare. 



From the above it will be seen that the possession 

 of a foaling mare does not present such formidable 

 difficulties to the inexperienced, if so be that the 



