vI THE MARE 73 
will have a good agricultural mare to sell at five or 
six years old, and will have lost nothing by the ex- 
periment, for the mare will have earned her keep 
and be at the best age for sale, and should show a 
profit These mares can be worked steadily the 
whole year round, can take their turn, if necessary, 
up to the day of foaling, and within a month be 
doing their share again. Care should, however, be 
taken not to give them severe work for, say, eight 
or ten weeks before foaling. They should, except 
for light or easy journeys, be kept out of the shafts, 
and not put to any labour that necessitates their 
straining, but they can do their work in the plough 
and harrow as usual. The man who goes to buy a 
mare for breeding purposes, after satisfying himself 
that she is qualified to do her full share of farm 
labour, should have her tried for wind, and carefully 
examined for side-bone, ring-bone, and spavin. In 
general she should be well bred, deep and stout, 
with well-sprung ribs, a fair length, but strong in 
the loins, full in the chest, compact yet roomy in 
build, and free in her movements, bending her knee 
well in her trot and going well behind. Her knees 
and hocks should be large, her legs flat and big, 
with clean, hard sinews, and short between the knee 
and fetlock; her shoulders muscular, and her feet 
large, sound, open, and healthy. It is of the greatest 
importance that sire and dam should have perfectly 
good feet ; the best with bad feet are worthless, and 
no fault is more common and more hereditary than 
unsoundness in the feet. It is not often possible for 
the ordinary tenant-farmer to obtain an almost fault- 
less animal, but let him satisfy himself at least of 
