The horse in all his varieties and uses Author:John Lawrence Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SECTION III.—Breeding. The ceremony of introduction of the horse to the mare is well known, in all its particular tactics, by our stable, particularly our cou... more »ntry people. In the stud it is usual, previously, to try young or uncertain mares with an ordinary stallion, styled a teaser, that the superior may not be fatigued, or have his vigour exhausted. Mares known to be quiet and thoroughly ready, are offered to the horses with their legs at liberty, and only held by the head; otherwise they are hoppled, or their legs tackled.. Such is perhaps universally held a sufficient precaution; but it has not always proved so ; and fatal accidents have occasionally occurred, from headstrong and determined mares plunging violently, and getting their hinder legs at liberty, or throwing themselves down. Stallions, at different periods, have been killed outright, in this way, from kicks on the testes, or having their legs broken. To couple accidents together, though arising from different causes, a racing stallion was lost, some years since, by being put, with a full stomach, to a mare. The violence of the action caused a rupture of the intestines. Many years past, and immediately after a fatal accident which came to his knowledge, the present writer recommended the security of leathern straps, attached to posts fixed in the ground, in which straps the legs and fetlocks of the mare might be confined all fours; a railing to be placed on each side, as with the leaping-bar. To those who slight a precaution of this kind, the author begs leave to propose a question:—how would theyrelish and digest the loss of a horse, worth a couple of thousands, by a sudden stroke, some fine sunshiny morning ? The stallion not being overburdened with work, the mare is customarily covered twice, and is again presen...« less