CHAP. iv. POINTS OF CART MARE. 425 



able diseases. Entire horses, which have not been forced by strong 

 food, and have been but moderately used up to five years old, remain 

 sound and vigorous to a good old age, and to a sound, hardy stallion 

 of from seven to fifteen, or even more, years, possessing suitable 

 qualifications, breeders may be recommended who desire good, strong, 

 healthy foals. 



A practice, much adopted on the Continent, of allowing the mare to 

 be covered twice within a comparatively brief period, has much to 

 recommend it, but with travelling sires it is attended with inconveni- 

 ence. Still, if followed by successful results, it is better for the horse 

 to serve the mare twice in one day than to cover her, if refractory, four, 

 five, or even more times, at intervals of several days. Sometimes it 

 happens that a stallion, especially a young and over-used one, is insen- 

 sible to the attractions of a mare, and more markedly so if she is 

 suckling at the time. When an antipathy of this kind obstructs what 

 appears to be a desirable alliance, the practice is adopted of exciting 

 the horse by the approach of another inare, and, at the moment of 

 service, substituting the one it is wished should be covered. The decep- 

 tion often proves effectual, but its frequent repetition has the almost 

 certain effect of rendering a docile horse savage and ill-tempered. 



It is generally admitted that working stallions beget more foals than 

 those whose systems have been pampered by over-feeding and insuffi- 

 cient exercise. During the season, travelling stallions cannot, of 

 course, be put to team labour, but they should have sufficient daily 

 exercise to maintain their locomotory muscles in vigour, to create a 

 natural appetite for food, and to receive the full benefits of pure air 

 and change of scene. 



During the season stallions should be well dieted, nor should their 

 condition be too greatly reduced out of season. Still, every tendency 

 to obesity must be checked, both by controlling the food and by exacting 

 more labour. Oats and hay make the best provender, with an addition 

 in season of beans and peas for stallions of five years and upwards. 

 When the season is over the beans should be stopped, the oats reduced 

 in quantity, and boiled barley substituted. Whenever good grass or 

 tares can be got, they should be given, and, as an alternative, pulped 

 roots and chaff. Wheat should never be used, for it predisposes to 

 attacks of laminitis and other congestive diseases. Mr. Reynolds adds 

 that the administration of aphrodisiac agents drugs employed to 

 increase eagerness for service should be rigorously discouraged. 



The material difference between the form of a brood mare and of a 

 stallion is, that she should be rather the longer in the body, with the head, 

 neck, and forehand less massive, the croup and thighs larger, and the 

 abdomen and pelvis relatively more capacious than the corresponding 

 regions in the stallion. The cart-mare, however, should have a long 

 body, roomy chest, broad loins, and wide quarters, a good head well 

 set on, and well formed and well placed legs. Her constitution 

 should be healthy and vigorous, her temper gentle and tractable, her 

 generative organs and mammary glands should be well developed, and 

 she should be free from all hereditary defects. 



