20 THE HORSE. 



the author in former days, imprudently, more than 

 once, incurred. In cold, wet, and bad weather, it is 

 far more safe, and consistent with the preservation of 

 health, both of the dam and foal, for her to be taken 

 within doors, to bring forth in a roomy outhouse. 



To common, or chance-medley breeders, whose 

 mares take the risk of heaths and wilds, and thence 

 have been immemorially liable to casualties from 

 ditch, drain, bog, or other dangerous places, wherein 

 the fruit of twelve months' expectation of their pro- 

 prietors may be foundered in an instant, a few words 

 of caution will not be superfluous. In the first place, 

 the mare's reckoning should be most punctually 

 attended to; and at the eleventh month, beyond 

 which there is no certainty, she should be sedulously 

 watched, or taken to a place of safety. Having 

 foaled successfully, the next care is to provide her 

 with the best and most succulent pasturage, without 

 which the growth of the foal will be nipped in the 

 bud, and rendered subsequently defective, from the 

 inferior quantity and poor quality of the mare's milk. 

 This care at the commencement is indispensable to 

 the profit of even breeders of the inferior class, who 

 rear stock, either for use or sale, at the least possible 

 expense. Indeed, breeding horses, or any of our 

 domestic animals, to a profitable purpose, is an under- 

 taking dependent on a variety of observances and 

 precautions ; among which it is not of the least con- 

 sequence, to keep in a regular memorandum-book 

 the exact dates when the female, of whatever species, 

 received the male; an important item, which has 

 been too often trusted to memory and hearsay. 



