EARLY FOALING 169 



afterwards stands shivering by its mothers side, 

 gets a chill, and thereby sows the seeds of roaring 

 and other diseases which cling to the animal through 

 the rest of its life. Again, for the first three months 

 of the year the mares must be fed on dry food with 

 a linseed mash, and occasionally a few carrots for a 

 change. I doubt whether this kind of feeding admits 

 of the mare's nourishing her foal as she would if she 

 browsed on the natural grasses that spring up in 

 April and May. I do not believe that early foaling 

 occurs naturally amongst horses running wild, and I 

 maintain that in our endeavours to breed good early 

 foals we are fighting a battle with Nature and getting 

 the worst of it. In the whole of my experience I 

 doubt whether I have ever known a May foal that 

 was a roarer. Judge Clark, of Newmarket, who is 

 quite of my way of thinking in this matter, has for 

 some considerable time kept a record of May foals, 

 every one of which, as far as his observation of their 

 after-career enabled him to determine, was free from 

 the infirmity. How is it that, proportionately, private 

 breeders produce more winners than are turned out 

 by public breeders ? The answer is that the former 

 allows his yearlings to gallop about the paddock until 

 they pass into the trainer's hands, while the latter are, 

 by force of circumstances, obliged to pamper and feed 

 up their yearlings to show well in the sale ring. It 

 is also only natural for the breeder for sale to take 

 excessive care of his yearlings, which for a month 

 or more prior to their being sold are led about at a 

 walking pace an hour or two every day, and are 



