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 
