OF THE FOAL. 209 



trouble the stallion gives. Perhaps the 

 custom is a little overdone. Certainly two, 

 at least, of the three or four geldings Avhich 

 I have myself regularly used as hacks and 

 hunters (for I have mostly ridden mares) 

 well deserved, for their make, shape, charac- 

 ter, action, and soundness, to have been 

 left entire. 



There is very little danger attendant 

 on castration, if it be performed (as it 

 always should be) by a qualified veterinary 

 surgeon, but it should not be done in hot 

 weather. In this, and in all other operations 

 involving pain, chloroform should be used. 

 The additional expense of an angesthetic is 

 not very considerable ; and even if it were 

 much greater than it is, we surely owe all 

 the consideration we can shoAv for an animal 

 which contributes so much to our pleasure 

 and convenience as the horse. 



14 



