The Field Book: or, Sports and pastimes of the United Kingdom: compiled from the best authorities, ancient and modernMaxwell, W. H. (William Hamilton)
History
The Field Book: or, Sports and pastimes of the United Kingdom: compiled from the best authorities, ancient and modern
Maxwell, W. H. (William Hamilton)
Amusements -- Great Britain; Sports -- Dictionaries; Sports -- Great Britain
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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