MARE
—is the well-known feminine of the HORSE, but not held of equal value with the masculine in respect to the gender, which is not only troublesome, but found to be productive of temporary debility at certain seasons of the year. Mares are evidently weaker, and less adequate to severe work, during the time they give proof of a desire to copulate, than at any other; which, perhaps, is the principal reason why GELDINGS are so generally preferred, as far as they can be obtained. Notwithstanding this partiality, MARES are not without their advocates, and have their conveniencies: in cases of LAMENESS, or other occurrences in the long list of casual ills, they, of course, become appropriate to the purpose of PROPAGATION, without much loss being sustained. Those, however, who expect to derive either pleasure, emolument, or a gratification of ambition, from BREEDING, must be a little prudent and circumspect in the shape, make, distinct points, and general symmetry, of the MARE, before they too hastily embark in so critical, and so truly expensive, an undertaking. Although it is a maxim universally admitted, that an equal degree of precaution should be used in respect to the HORSE, it is doubly and trebly necessary with the mare; because strict observation has demonstrated, that nearly, or full two out of every three FOALS, display, in their appearance, more of the DAM than the SIRE: and that there are more FILLIES than COLTS fallen every year, will not admit of a doubt.
A variety of opinions are held, and occasionally propagated, upon the best and most proper age for putting a mare to horse: that a FILLY covered in her third year, will produce a fine healthy foal in her fourth, is sufficiently known; and that BROOD MARES bring forth excellent stock from their twentieth to their twenty-fifth year, is equally true; but if the two extremes are avoided (when it can be conveniently done so) the produce may most likely come some few shades nearer perfection. In the first instance it is fair to infer, that the component parts may not have reached the extreme points of STRENGTH and MATURITY; and that in the latter, from the natural effect of AGE, the frame is verging upon decay; and that the LACTEALS from whence the NUTRIMENT for the FOAL is to be obtained, must be contracted in proportion.
The best and most approved season for letting the mare take the horse, where the produce is bred for general purposes, is from the first week in May to the last in June; as then the offspring is dropt in April or May in the following year, and are the properest months a foal can fall in, to have the advantage of all the summer for growth and expansion, preparatory to the drawback of WEANING, and the ensuing severity of the winter. Mares during the time of GESTATION, are liable, but very little subject to ABORTION; reasonable work, and moderate exertions, affect them but slightly in that way; nor does the disappointment but seldom happen, unless by some severe, cruel, or inhuman treatment. Mares are the most uncertain of all animals in bringing forth from the time of conception. Numerous attempts have been made to discover the precise time of a mare's carrying her foal, which, however, does not yet appear to have been ascertained to a certainty. Long-standing opinions and authority, transmitted from one posterity to another, has established at eleven months and as many days as the mare happens to be years old: strict attention, in a variety of instances, to both the LUNAR and CALENDAR months, has proved the uncertainty of this calculation, and left them, in those events, dependent upon neither one or the other. Certain it is, they go many days longer with a COLT FOAL than they do with a FILLY; and cases frequently occur, where a mare carries her foal within a few days of the twelve months.