Page:Hints to Horse-keepers.djvu/41

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CHOICE OF THE MARE.
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generate blood for the nourishment of her fœtus as well as of herself. Green succulent grasses and roots are excellent at this time, as clover, lucerne, green corn sowed broadcast and cut young for the purpose; ruta baga turnips and, best of all, carrots. Large quantities of oats or of corn should not be given—if the latter be used at all, it should be old and thoroughly dried—though it is not advisable to cut them off entirely; from four to eight quarts of oats may be given daily with advantage, and bran mashes, with the oats added to them, steamed or moistened with hot water, will be found the best method of administering them. There is no more certain method of insuring the production of a poor, under-sized, starveling and weak-constitutioned foal, than to starve the mother, or to feed her on ill-suited or improper food during her gestation, or to keep her cold, or wet, or exposed to violent changes of temperature. Equal care should be taken of both mother and foal, after the birth of the young animal; and it will be found well to repay the extra expense if both are furnished with a little oats and with nutritious food of the descriptions named above, so long as the young animal is sucking the dam.

"Lastly, the temper," says the same authority on whom we have already drawn so largely, "is of the greatest importance, by which must be understood, not that gentleness at grass which may lead the breeder's family to pet the mare, but such a temper as will serve the purposes of the rider, and will answer to the stimulus of the voice, whip or spur. A craven or a rogue is not to be thought of as the mother of a family; and if the mare belong to a breed which is remarkable for refusing to answer the call of the rider, she should be consigned to any task rather than the stud farm. Neither should a mare be used for this purpose which had been too irritable to train, unless she happen to

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