Attention should be paid to the state of the bowels of a newly dropped foal. If a passage be not observed, the gut should be carefully emptied by the hand. About a month previous to foaling, mares should be fed, at least twice a day, with cold bran mashes, as also plentifully supplied with any forward succulent food—such as lucerne, tares, clover, &c., but the two first are best. It is desirable to have the mares foal as early as possible, and when the mare is barren, she may be covered as early in February as she will take the horse, and if stinted she will foal early in January—thereby gaining a considerable advantage over those foaled later in the year. For instance, a colt dropped in January is fifteen months old, when in racing chronology he only reckons for twelve. It must, however, be observed, that it is impossible to have mares to foal every year in the month of January, unless the mare were to take the horse every year in February, as her time of gestation is eleven months and some days. Consequently, if she were to be covered in January, she would foal (out of the year) in December, as was the case with the December filly.
When mares are near their time of foaling, they should be carefully watched, for they will always approach water at this time; and as they generally (though not invariably) foal standing up, the produce may thus be lost. Some mares should be watched from another cause, as they will kill their foals as soon as they are dropped. When a mare has foaled, she should have a pail full of warm gruel, and should live generously until there is grass for her. The colt should also be fed with oats (bruised) twice or three times a day, which it will begin to eat at three days old.
The covering season commences on the first of February. Mares should be tried by the teazer every ninth day until the end of the season, which terminates in July.
Those mares which have foaled will be in season on the third day after; but it is not advisable to put them to the horse until the ninth, when they will probably be stinted. A mare, with a foal at her foot, is quite as likely to stand to the horse, if not more so, than one which has never bred, or proved barren the previous season; as it is called “missed the horse,” though she might have bred the year before.
Various have been the measures resorted to, to stint mares to the horse, which have proved barren for several years, or perhaps never bred at all—such as bleeding, immersing in cold water, and putting them in motion after the horse has retired; but no great faith is to be placed in any of them. It said that opium has been administered with effect; but in the cases of Victoria and Echo, every possible means tried, proved abortive.
Perhaps it would be better that stallions which cover at a high price, should only be suffered to serve a certain number of mares, as in that case it would not be necessary to pamper them to that degree generally practised, to enable them to exceed their natural powers. I have no hesitation in saying, that, in the long run, their produce would be greater, and I reason thus:—A mare which has missed three or four seasons together, is put to an ass, and generally stands to him. Now whatever may be the supposed increased physical powers of this animal, the effect, in this instance, is principally to be attributed to the cool state of his blood.
It is usually the practice to keep stallions very full of flesh, perpetually crammed with corn, by which their blood must be in a constant state of fever, and many of them have died in consequence of this treatment. Eggs are also frequently given them in the covering season. Some years since, a person in Shropshire, who purchased a horse out of the north, called “Young Roscius,” at a considerable price, not taking the precaution of cracking the egg before he gave it to him, it got across his gullet and killed him. If, instead of having recourse to a common farrier, who attempted to force it down with the butt-end of a whip, he had sent for a veterinary surgeon, it might have been dissected out with the greatest ease and safety, and his horse’s life preserved. Stallions, at the end of the season, should be physicked and turned out into a paddock, with very little corn; but the first day they are turned out, great precaution is necessary. They should be walked out on that day from five o’clock in the morning until evening; for if turned into the paddock fresh from their stable, they would gallop about for hours; and some have been known to do so until they have dropped down dead. Early in November, they should be brought into the stable again, physicked, moderately fed at first; well cleaned, and exercised every day for two or three hours; and this plan should be continued until the commencement of the next covering season. The air and exercise, say an hour or two a day, at this time, would invigorate their bodies, and conduce to their general health. Grooms may object to this system; but it has reason on its side, which they have not always on theirs.—Sporting Repository.
Brook, s. A running water; a rivulet.
Broom, s. A shrub; a besom, so called from the matter of which it is made.
Broth, s. Liquor in which flesh is boiled.