The Brood Mare 275 



in good flesh. If she is idle, she must be turned on pasture 

 or in a lot that will give her plenty of exercise to keep her 

 from becoming too fat, as excessively fat or excessively 

 thin mares are not as likely to become pregnant as mares 

 in good, hard, physical flesh. Some breeders believe that 

 mares are hard to get in foal when on clover pasture, but 

 as such pasture is the natural habitat of the horse, it 

 does not seem reasonable that any such condition should 

 exist. 



Feed during pregnancy. 



After the brood mare has proven to be in foal the feed 

 must be rather liberal. She is usually suckling a foal as 

 well as developing the foetus and this means that she 

 stands in need of a large amount of protein and ash as 

 well as energy-forming feeds. This, as suggested in the 

 previous paragraph, should be supplied by the legumes, 

 oats, oil meal, or bran. Many mistakes are made on 

 this score, and often the brood mares are not fed as well 

 as the geldings. A hard-worked mare in foal and suckling 

 a colt will need from one-and-one-fourth to one-and-one- 

 half pounds of grain and an equal amount of hay for 

 every 100 pounds of live weight. If the mares are not 

 working in winter, it is not essential that they be fed 

 grain if provided with legume or grain hay. In many 

 sections mares are wintered very successfully if in good 

 flesh in the fall by running on stubble fields and to the 

 straw stacks with the addition of a feed of clover or 

 alfalfa hay in the evening. Then in the spring they are 

 grained for two or three weeks before active work begins. 



Feed during parturition. 



Previous to parturition, the mare should be kept on 

 good laxative feed so that the bowels will be in perfectly 



