30 NOTES ON BREEDING EACEH0ESE8. 



foot of a dam with exceptionally good milk, as other 

 mares will, season after season, throw magnificent foals, 

 which during suckling time collapse and melt away like 

 butter in the sun. It is advisable to take away from 

 such dams the foals soon after they are dropped, and 

 get nurses for them if they are to be had.* 



6. It is better to abstain from purchasing mares which, ac- 



cording to the Stud Book, have repeatedly slipped their 

 foals, frequently remained barren, or bred twins. 



7. The first requisite in a mare is that she should be long, 



deep, and roomy, in order to afford the foal sufficient 

 space for its development ; leggy and short mares can- 

 not be expected to throw big foals. Many imperfec- 

 tions may be overlooked rather than these two. 



8. I do not like in a brood mare a too luxuriant growth of 



hair, nor, especially, tails full and bushy at the root. 

 Foals from mares, and stallions, too, thus afl^ected, are 

 generally wanting in energy and quality. A rat tail 

 is a great eyesore ; but how rare is a bad horse with 

 a rat tail ? 



9. From a sharply-marked expression in muscles and limbs 



in every animal, from which it is intended to breed, 

 may be inferred that its progeny will be similarly dis- 

 tinguished. The generic character, especially, must be 

 unmistakably expressed in either sex. I dislike mares 

 resembling in shape and manners stallions as much as 

 I do entire horses, a minute inspection of which is 

 necessary to convince one that they are not mares or 



* Particularly sensitive mares will not easily submit to the exchange, 

 but with the necessary precaution and patience it generally succeeds. 

 The mare knows her foal by the smell principally, as may be ascertained 

 when collected in greater numbers. A little aniseed oil rubbed into the 

 coats of the foals to be exchanged, for a few days, until the mares have 

 got accustomed to it, prepares the deception. The mares are then re- 

 moved from their boxes for a time sufEcient to allow the pressure of the 

 milk in the udder to become inconvenient, when, the foals being ex- 

 changed in the meantime, the mares are brought back, and the impo- 

 sition is accomplished. 



