CHAPTER XIX. 



CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF BROOD MARES. 



Getting doubtful mpxes in foal — Eternal vigilance — The productive period 

 — Period of gestation — Marking the foal — Use the brood mares — 

 Stabling pregnant mares — "Wheat middlings- — Enlargement of abdo- 

 men — Attention at foaling time — Jealous mothers. 



THE first thing to be done in the management of the brood 

 mare is to get her in foal, otherwise she cannot properly 

 be called a brood mare. More money is probably lost on stock 

 farms through carelessness and the improper handling of mares 

 in the breeding season than in any other part of the horse 

 breeding business. 



GETTING DOUBTFUL MARES IN FOAL. 



Mares that are not regular breeders should have a run at 

 grass for a few weeks without grain and then taken up and 

 given grain and put to light work until coming in season, and 

 then bred. Mares bred and then turned to grass, or mares 

 running to grass, are not near as likely to get in foal as are 

 those managed in this way. 



A point upon which there is a great diversity of opinion is 

 when and how often a mare should be tried after being served 

 by the horse. A mare will almost invariably be "in heat" on 

 the seventh day after foaling if she is healthy and has received 

 no injury from foaling, and in most cases it is desirable to have 

 her served at that time if it is thought best to breed her that 

 season. After service she may be tried again in two weeks. 

 There is no regular time for a mare to come in heat — after the 

 ninth day from foaling — nor any regular time for her to stay 

 in heat. 



In this business, as in most others, " eternal vigilance is the 



price of success." ' Mares sometimes, after being bred, refuse 



(164) 



