Kicks and Fractures 207 



acted by vigorously drawing her head toward the stallion, 

 thus turning her heels from him. When coition has been 

 completed and the stalHon is dismounting, the same rule 

 should constantly be applied and the mare at once caused to 

 face the stallion in order to avoid kicks. 



Owners of valuable stallions generally prefer to obtain 

 yet greater security by the application of hobbles. Two 

 forms are used, of which there are numerous varieties. By 

 one plan, a hobble is buckled about each hind pastern and 

 to each hobble is attached a rope of sufficient length, the two 

 free ends of which are carried forward between the fore- 

 legs and securely tied to a strong collar or carried upward 

 on either side of the neck and tied on the top sufficiently 

 tightly to prevent the mare from kicking backward any ap- 

 preciable distance. By the second plan, the hobbles are at- 

 tached to the hocks instead of the pasterns. In this case, 

 each hobble is branched; one portion of each is attached 

 above and the other below the hock of each hind leg, and by 

 ropes or straps fixed forward the same as in the first. The 

 latter plan possesses some points of superiority : the mare is 

 not so liable to injure herself by becoming entangled in the 

 ropes, and the stallion is probably also exposed to less dan- 

 ger of getting his foot caught in the securing apparatus. 

 Whatever the form of breeding hobbles or other confining 

 apparatus, they should be secure and strong. Nothing can 

 well be more dangerous for the breeding stallion than weak 

 hobbles which lead to a false feeling of security and throw 

 the otherwise careful groom off his guard. I was called to 

 attend a valuable stallion suffering from a compound tibial 

 fracture, the result of a kick during attempted copulation. 

 Because the mare was not properly in estrum, or for other 

 reason, she was unexpectedly ill-natured. When the stal- 

 lion was attempting to mount she commenced to kick, the 

 old hobbles, in which the owner of the stallion had trusted, 

 gave way, and the fatal accident at once followed. The 

 breeder should never trust partly to hobbles and partly to 

 the gentleness of the mare or good luck. If hobbles are to 

 be trusted at all, the breeder should know that they are so 



