Читать книгу Genesis... - Welby Thomas Cox Jr. - Страница 5

The principal goal of all owners of a thoroughbred mare is to produce a healthy straight-legged foal in January. The reason for this definitive planning is that the mare, who has been proven to have “taken” and declared positively pregnant by the Vet now has a gestation period of from 335-350 days or eleven months from fertilization. And the all-important fact is that the foal must be delivered on or after the first day of January. This is essential because a thoroughbred baby becomes a year old on each January first. Therefore, it would be catastrophic for the mother of a new foal to deliver in mid-December…equally poor planning to produce a foal in May which would place the baby at a decided disadvantage in an industry economically predisposed to placing the babies into service at the race-track in March of their two-year-old season. It is highly unusual for a horse campaigning as a three-year-old to be mature enough to compete with horses which are six-months older. But it has been done, in fact the Hall of Fame trainer Wayne Lucas ran a horse in the Kentucky Derby who was a May foal and that horse, Charismatic won the Derby after Lucas and the owner had run the horse in a claiming race for sixty thousand dollars.

As you can very well see there is a window of opportunity here of only a mere fifteen days, and the likelihood that the mare covered by the stallion, will not “take,” requiring another mating session in 18-21 days. If the mare had the facilities of a female Praying Mantis, she could eliminate the issue by killing the stallion, after which she could use him sexually for the express purpose of fertilization, and then she could eat him, (No Pun Intended.)

You might ask, “How would that help?” There is no scientific idea, except for the Theory of Relativity, which has been the source of as much misunderstanding as Natural Selection. Much of the confusion relating to Darwin’s ideas originates in the graphic phrase, “survival of the fittest.” This was in point of fact, which Darwin noted, not his invention but that of his contemporary, the philosopher Herbert Spencer. Evidently, Darwin felt that Spencer’s phrase captured the essence of his theory, because he borrowed it from Spencer and inserted it into the Origin of the Species at several points. Because of this choice there followed much mischief, for when the question is asked, “In the phrase, survival of the fittest, who are the fittest?” The answer comes back, “Those who survive!” Thus the central concept in Natural Selection is revealed to be, “the survival of those who survive.” The theory is thus reduced to a meaningless tautology, a needless repetition of the same sense in different words.

Or, so it would seem. But this reading of Darwin is based on a misunderstanding of his ideas. In the theory of Natural Selection, fitness has a very special meaning: a fit individual is not merely one who survives, but one who also produces an offspring. Darwinian fitness means reproductive success. A person may have great physical strength, nobility of character, and brilliance of intellect, but if he or she produces no offspring, that person’s fitness is zero.

In the case of Henry VIII, this demand for reproductive fitness is exacerbated by his demand that his queen not only reproduce but deliver a male heir to take the throne. After many years of effort with his first wife Catherine, and their failure to conceive a son, Henry used all his powers with the pope to bring about a dissolution of the marriage to permit a second marriage to Anne of Boleyn, the King is forced to start a new religion in order to dispose of Anne, when she too failed to deliver a male heir to the throne. Certainly, it is known that Anne was Henry’s intellectual equal but in Henry’s historical determination to produce a male heir to the throne as King of England and Anne’s failure to produce a son, her fitness to be Queen of England was obviated. We know Anne refused to go gently and Henry is forced to take dire measures, introducing once again the Mantis theory, except in this case he beheads Anne and neither eats her or has sex with her.

The distinction is made clear by the Praying Mantis. Once the male Mantis has fertilized the eggs the female begins to eat him. Not at the genitals, as a means of resurrecting a flaccid penis, but she starts with his head. Sometimes the male gets away, but most often, since he is in a euphoric state after sex…his brain is secreting a hormone which inhibits copulation; but, after the male has lost his head, he copulates more vigorously, (The World According to Gorp). These circumstances enhance the male’s reproductive success, contributing greatly to the survival of the species, but severely diminish his personal prospects for survival, giving credence to the old wives’ tale, “he lost his head over a piece of tail.”

Can you see the significance of this act in the window of opportunity for the thoroughbred mare? Not knowing if the semen of the stallion will, in fact, fertilize her egg, if she were a Mantis and capable of killing the stallion, she could use him over and over, guaranteeing that the subsequent coverage would increase her window to a secure pregnancy. But the physiology plays a major role in that the stallion weighs in at 1250 pounds…and I beg you to remember the headless rooster…it does not sit still…it is a ready combatant in any continuing sexual activity and though it may be ready to copulate until the cock crows, the stallion will not be held for ease of entry by the mare.

Obviously, these are matters of interest to debate but we are talking about a valuable mare who would be well attended by a Veterinarian, skilled in equine gynecological issues. To avoid any delay in having the stallion cover the mare and getting her in foal, the vet would no doubt, prior to sending her to the stud, check her reproductive anatomy and genital organs to make certain all is in order. She would be cleared as to any possible infection, or conditions which may preclude the mare from delivering a sound foal or infecting the stallion.

The life of the stallion’s spermatozoa cannot be guaranteed beyond forty-eight hours, and, any isolated service too long before the ovulation will be wasted effort. The mare must be watched and teased on a daily basis within her window and timely delivered to the stud, once she “shows” and begins to “horse,” thus guaranteeing the most likely chance she will be covered by the stallion and the stud team will not be required to arrange another mating session.