278 Western Live-stock Management 



figure eleven months, and this is usually close enough. 

 Mares vary greatly in the length of the period of gesta- 

 tion. Some perfectly healthy foals may be dropped in 

 less than ten months and others may be carried for twelve 

 months. Usually, however, a variation of over two 

 weeks is considered abnormal. 



Conditions affecting hreeding. 



Some horse-men are successful in breeding mares at 

 two years of age, but it is not customary to breed until 

 three. When the mare is bred at two years of age she 

 is usually allowed to skip the next year, and is fed very 

 liberally. Otherwise the two-year-old mare will be 

 stunted considerably in growth. The argument in favor of 

 the early breeding is that it insures a more reliable breeder. 

 This, however, has never been fully demonstrated. 



The breeding mare should not be overly fat. A mare 

 will breed better if she is in normal flesh than if she is 

 pampered. A better plan is to have the mare increasing 

 in flesh rather than decreasing at the time of breeding, 

 if there is to be any variation one way or the other. If 

 the mares have any sickness due to foaling, or any trouble 

 with the sexual organs, they should not be bred until 

 they have thoroughly recovered from the ailment. It is 

 better to allow them rest until fall and breed them at that 

 time than to run any unnecessary risks. If perfectly 

 normal, the brood mare is generally bred at the ninth day 

 after foaling, and if not bred at this time, she occasionally 

 will not do so until the colt is weaned, although this is 

 not usually the case. 



Serving the mare. 



The first item in serving the mare is to ascertain 

 whether or not she is in heat. This is determined by 



