HORSE-Vetch. See HIPPOCREPIS.
Animated Horse-Hairs, a term used to express a sort of long and slender water-worm of a blackish colour, and so much resembling a horse-hair that it is generally, by the vulgar, supposed to be the hair fallen from a horse's mane into the water as he drinks, and there animated by some strange power. Dr Lillier has at large confuted this opinion in the Philosophical Transactions. See the article SETACEOUS WORMS.
Breeding of Horses. When the stallion is chosen, and all the mares intended for him are collected together, there must be another stone-horse, to discover which of the mares are in heat; and, at the same time, contribute to inflame them. All the mares are to be brought successively to this stone-horse; which should also be enflamed, and suffered frequently to neigh. As he is for leaping every one, such as are not in heat keep him off, whilst those which are so suffer him to approach them. But instead of being allowed to satisfy his impulse, he must be led away, and the real stallion substituted in his stead. This trial is necessary for ascertaining the true time of the mare's heat, especially of those which have not yet had a colt; for with regard to such as have recently foaled, the heat usually begins nine days after their delivery; and on that very day they may be led to the stallion to be covered; and nine days after, by the experiment abovementioned, it may be known whether they are still in heat. If they are, they must be covered a second time; and
thus successively every ninth day while their heat continues: for when they are impregnated, their heat abates, and in a few days ceases entirely.
But that every thing may be done easily and conveniently, and at the same time with success and advantage, great attention, expence and precaution are requisite. The stud must be fixed in a good soil, and in a suitable place, proportioned to the number of mares and stallions intended to be used. This spot must be divided into several parts, inclosed with rails or ditches well fenced; in the part where the pasture is the richest, the mares in foal, and those with colts by their sides, are to be kept. Those which are not impregnated, or have not yet been covered, are to be separated, and kept with the fillies in another close, where the pasture is less rich, that they may not grow too fat, which would obstruct the progress of generation. Lastly, the young stone colts, or geldings, are to be kept in the driest part of the fields, and where the ground is most unequal; that by running over the uneven surface, they may acquire a freedom in the motion of their legs and shoulders. This close, where the stone colts are kept, must be very carefully separated from the others, lest the young horses break their bounds, and enervate themselves with the mares. If the tract be so large as to allow of dividing each of these closes into two parts, for putting oxen and horses into them alternately, the pasture will last much longer than if continually eaten by horses; the ox improving the fertility, whereas the horse lessens it. In each of these closes should be a pond; standing water being better than running, which often gripes them: and if there are any trees in the ground, they should be left standing, their shade being very agreeable to the horses in great heats; but all stems or stumps should be grubbed up, and all holes levelled, to prevent accidents. In these pastures your horses should feed during the summer; but in the winter the mares should be kept in the stable and fed with hay. The colts also must be housed, and never suffered to feed abroad in winter, except in very fine weather. Stallions that stand in the stable should be fed more with straw than hay; and moderately exercised till covering time, which generally lasts from the beginning of April to the end of June. But during this season they should have no other exercise, and be plentifully fed, but with the same food as usual. Before the stallion is brought to the mare, he should be dressed, as that will greatly increase his ardour. The mare must also be curried, and have no shoes on her hind feet, some of them being ticklish, and will kick the stallion. A person holds the mare by the halter, and two others lead the stallion by long reins; when he is in a proper situation, another assistant carefully directs the yard, pulling aside the mare's tail, as a single hair might hurt him dangerously. It sometimes happens that the stallion does not complete the work of generation, coming from the mare without making any injection: it should therefore be attentively observed, whether, in the last moments of the copulation, the dock of the stallion's tail has a vibrating motion; for such a motion always accompanies the emission of the seminal lymph. If he has performed the act, he must on no consideration be suffered to repeat it; but be led away directly to the stable, and there kept two days. For, however able a
good stallion may be of covering every day during the three months, it is much better to let him be led to a mare only every other day: his produce will be greater, and he himself less exhausted. During the first seven days, let four different mares be successively brought to him; and the ninth day let the first be again brought, and so successively while they continue in heat: but as soon as the heat of any one is over, a fresh mare is to be put in her place, and covered in her turn every nine days; and as several retain even at the first, second, or third time, it is computed that a stallion, by such management, may, during the three months, cover 15 or 18 mares, and beget 10 or 12 colts. These animals have a very large quantity of the seminal lymph; so that a considerable portion of it is shed during the emission. In the mares likewise is an emission, or rather distillation of the seminal lymph, during the whole time they are horsing; ejecting a viscid whitish lymph, called the heats, which cease on conception. This ichor the Greeks called hippomanes; and pretended that philtres might be made of it, one remarkable effect of which was, to render a horse frantic with lust. This hippomanes is very different from that found in the secundines of the foal, which Mr Daubenton first discovered, and has so accurately described its nature, origin, and situation. The ejection of this liquor is the most certain sign of the mare's heat; but it is also known by the inflation of the lower part of the vulva, by her frequent neighings, and attempts to get to the horses. After being covered, nothing more is requisite than to lead her away to the field. The first foal of a mare is never so strongly formed as the succeeding; so that care should be taken to procure for her, the first time, a larger stallion, that the defect of the growth may be compensated by the largeness of the size. Particular regard should also be had to the difference or congruity of the fashion of the stallion and the mare, in order to correct the faults of the one by the perfections of the other: especially never to make any disproportionate copulations, as of a small horse with a large mare, or a large horse with a small mare; as the produce of such copulation would be small, or badly proportioned. It is by gradations that we must endeavour to arrive at natural beauty: for instance, to give to a mare a little too clumsy, a well-made horse and finely shaped; to a small mare, a horse a little higher; to a mare which is faulty in her forehand, a horse with an elegant head and noble chest, &c.
It has been observed, that horses fed in dry and light grounds, produce temperate, swift, and vigorous foals, with muscular legs and a hard hoof; while the same bred in marshes and moist pastures have produced foals with a large heavy head, a thick carcass, clumsy legs, bad hoofs, and broad feet. These differences proceed from the air and food, which is easily understood; but what is more difficult to be accounted for, and still more essential than what we have hitherto observed, is, to be continually crossing the breed to prevent a degeneracy.
In coupling of horses, the colour and size should be suited to each other, the shape contrasted, and the breed crossed by an opposition of climates: but horses and mares foaled in the same stud should never be joined. These are essential articles; but there are others which should
should by no means be neglected: as that no short-docked mares be suffered in a stud, because from their being unable to keep off the flies, they are much more tormented by them than others which have a long sweeping tail; and their continual agitations from the stings of these insects, occasions a diminution in the quantity of their milk, and has a great influence on the constitution and size of the colt, which will be vigorous in proportion as its dam is a good nurse. Care must also be taken, that the stud mares be such as have been always brought up in pastures, and never over-worked. Mares which have always been brought up in the stable on dry food, and afterwards turned to grass, do not breed at first: some time is required for accustoming them to this new aliment.
Though the usual season for the heat of mares be from the beginning of April to the end of June, yet it is not uncommon to find some among a large number, that are in heat before that time: but it is advisable to let this heat pass over without giving them to the stallion, because they would foal in winter; and the colts, besides the inclemency of the season, would have bad milk for their nourishment. Again, if the mares are not in heat till after the end of June, they should not be covered that season; because the colts being foaled in summer, have not time for acquiring strength sufficient to repel the injuries of the following winter.
Many, instead of bringing the stallion to the mare, turn him loose into the close, where all the mares are brought together; and there leave him to choose such as will stand to him. This is a very advantageous method for the mares: they will always take horse more certainly than in the other; but the stallion, in six weeks, will do himself more damage than in several years by moderate exercise, conducted in the manner we have already mentioned.
When the mares are pregnant, and their belly begins to swell, they must be separated from those that are not, lest they hurt them. They usually go 11 months and some days; and foal standing, whereas most other quadrupeds lie down. Those that cannot foal without great difficulty, must be assisted; the foal must be placed
in a proper situation; and sometimes, if dead, drawn out with cords. The head of the colt usually presents itself first, as in all other animals: at its coming out of the matrix, it breaks the frondines or integuments that inclose it, which is accompanied with a great flux of the lymph contained in them; and at the same time one or more solid lumps are discharged, formed by the sediment of the inspissated liquor of the allantoides. This lump, which the ancients called the hippomenes of the colt, is so far from being, as they imagined, a mass of flesh adhering to the head of the colt, that it is separated from it by a membrane called amnion. As soon as the colt is fallen, the mare licks it, but without touching the hippomenes; which points out another error of the ancients, who affirmed that she instantly devours it.
The general custom is, to have a mare covered nine days after her foaling, that no time may be lost; but it is certain, that the mare having, by this means, both her present and future foal to nourish, her ability is divided, and she cannot supply both so largely as she might one only. It would therefore be better, in order to have excellent horses, to let the mares be covered only every other year; they would last the longer, and bring foals more certainly: for, in common studs, it is so far from being true that all mares which have been covered bring colts every year, that it is considered as a fortunate circumstance if half or at most two thirds of them foal.
Mares, when pregnant, will admit of copulation; but it is never attended with any superfluous. They usually breed till they are 14 or 15 years of age; and the most vigorous till they are above 18. Stallions, when well managed, will engender till the age of 20, and even beyond; but it must be observed, that such horses as are soonest made stallions, are also the soonest incapable of generation: thus the large horses, which acquire strength sooner than the slender, and are therefore often used as stallions as soon as they are four years old, are incapable of generation before they are sixteen.
Gelding of Horses. See GELDING.
Rearing of Horses. See COLT.