Physical Injuries 53 



considered essential and the fastenings should be secure in 

 every detail and beyond the possibility of slipping or accidental 

 detachment. 



If accidents are to be avoided, it is also highly important that 

 the mare is properly in estrum and that she is not frightened or 

 angered. Gentleness and patience in the handling of both stal- 

 lion and mare and postponing copulation until the proper moment 

 are always essential elements of. safety in breeding. Some 

 breeders place a twitch upon the mare's nose until the stalliou 

 has safely mounted her. 



In breeding mares to jacks, it is customary to place the mare 

 in a pit where she is closely confined and rests upon a plane a foot 

 or more lower than that upon which the jack stands. This not 

 only gives an advantage to the comparatively small male by 

 affording him an elevation, but also secures him against kicks 

 from the mare, a highly essential precaution because the mare 

 ordinarily resents copulation with the ass, so that the act is 

 largely in the nature of rape. 



False copulation, or entrance of the penis into the anus in- 

 stead of the vulva, is possible in almost any of our domestic ani- 

 mals and Harms records it as occurring in the mare, cow and 

 sow. The author has observed it only in the mare and, in all, 

 four times, though he has known of numerous other instances. 

 It is by no means rare and is highly dangerous. Its causes are 

 various but it is probably largely due to some resistance on the 

 part of the mare as a result of not being properly in estrum or 

 -otherwise becoming excited and attempting to kick or move 

 about. 



Coition is safe only when estrum is present in the proper de- 

 gree. The mare has ample power to close the vulva against the 

 ready entrance of the penis and thus cause it to glide upward 

 and forwards against and into the anus, which opening may be 

 more readily forced. 



The accident is also invited in aged cows or mares with pendu- 

 lous abdomen in which the anus is retracted and, drawing the supe- 

 rior commissure of the vulva with it, causes the vulvar opening to 

 approach the horizontal instead of the perpendicular and the penis 

 to glide forward and slightly upward over the oblique vulvar 

 ■opening to strike against the inferior surface of the tail and be 

 deflected into the anus. It may be purely accidental. Harms 



