TREATMENT OF BROOD MARES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 979, 21 November 1910, Page 8

TREATMENT OF BROOD MARES.

: '"■-AN AMERICAN THEORY. ■ A '-writer in the "Breeders' Gazette'' opens up an interesting subject concerning the breeding of ■ draught :.lorses/. He argues that confining mares in restricted areas is detrimental to breedmg.etrong ftals, and says that ho has that where mares are ,not worked much, and' are allowed to wander over almost unlimited areas, they have thrown fine foals, mostly colts. , ' Proceeding, he says: There seems,to be some hidden and elusive principle in the grass of the:pasture that goes to give horses vitality, stamina,-quality. ,-.Overstockingjrobs the; ; pasture of ■this'-; principle: Thi's:. is Sir'miter Gilbey s>idea, ahd"l ani'assured:that it-.is, in the main, correct. to : be;some "hidden, harmful thing- in grass whore horses have Tun' : and fouled it—something which is a. Teal poison to brood mares and that ■while it may not show in the maro herself will result, in a large, proportion of accidents and deaths, before loaling, during foaling,..and.after foaling,,.: Why, have we not?! learneS v this -bef ore .r ', Be-: cau«e the mares themselves looked well, their spirits were fairly good, their -'flesh all .right; we could not detect the lowering barometer of vitality. It was only the vitality of ihe mare that was lowered, and the vitality of her foal, not her llesh. './ . ■ :.■.,/:. . . ■.•...■-.-. ,< -, -:■• "Let me briefly catalogue some of the things that have come under my observation this year" with splendid' draught mares kept in small pastures and maintained in part by grain feeding. Many foals were born ahead of time and died.. Some with deficient instincts would not euck. Some had abnormal development, one way or another. Some were too languid to stand and'.suck, and this was the chief trouble. 'All. of. them ,died and ■their mothers ..'were nearly, every:-one'in splendid health, apparently few of them overworked, few, too fat. ■ There .seeniec no apparent and assignable reason at all for;, this "bad, luck." . I know' a Jarm where seven mares. were in foal. Threej of. these mare's weiis 6old and sent away to neighbou'riiig farms. The farm in , question has a small area devoted to pasture, and many horses have nin over the ]and for a long time. ■ The three mares dent- away had harder ivork „ than . those kept, and were not the bestimares, but they, had the run of wide pastures. They 'dropped easily three splendid foals, all of which lived. and. developed well. At the'; home farm three -foals were ~lost, despite assiduous care; and ono was . raised. Can there be assigned any ; other cjnse than this, that, the foals'-were ■poisoned'by their mothers grazing, over the. old polluted pastures which were too small and" too long used by.horses?"