Live Stock Breeders' Association. 209 



CARE OF STALLIONS. 



The proper care of stallions does not differ materially from 

 the care of other breeding animals. Enough of good wholesome 

 food and water, plenty of exercise, grooming and general clean- 

 liness, along with regular attention, are the principal factors requi- 

 site to their best welfare. Many stallions fail to be "sure" sires 

 simply because of lack of exercise or an overgenerous allowance of 

 poor food, two factors which, acting together, cannot lead to the 

 best results. The swollen or scurvy legs so often seen on stallions 

 are generally the result of insufficient exercise and lack of clean- 

 liness. 



Generally speaking, there is no good reason why a stallion 

 should not be put to work. Such treatment insures regular feeding, 

 grooming, exercise, and will give him the privilege of association 

 with other horses. It will do away with the solitary confinement 

 and irregular attention of which he is otherwise the recipient. 



If, under ordinary conditions, at the close of the breeding 

 season a stallion is pressed into regular service and accustomed to 

 work gradually, he will be the better for it in the end. Association 

 with other horses will then come to be a regular occurrence, and 

 the obnoxious actions so common to stallions in harness will become 

 less frequent. As a horse in regular service he then receives regu- 

 lar care and exercise. If he be from any of the lighter breeds as 

 saddler or trotter it is by no means advisable to use him for a kind 

 of work for which he was never intended. It is not conducive to 

 the best development of horses to force them to do work foreign 

 to their breeding and general character. For example, the high 

 class carriage team may be used for farm work and serve the pur- 

 pose well, but by this treatment their value as carriage horses is in 

 most cases decreased. 



If conditions are such that a stallion cannot be worked, a large 

 paddock offers the next best opportunity for exercise. In building 

 such a paddock it is economy to build it substantial, so that there 

 will be no possible chance for injury to the animals. The diffi- 

 culty encountered in such a method is that horses, particularly 

 drafters, will not take enough exercise of their own free will. 



Oats should constitute the basis of the grain ration for stall- 

 ions. The efficiency of this grain may, in many cases, be increased 

 by the addition of one-fifth or one-sixth bran. A limited quantity 

 of corn makes the ration a more economical one, and may be added 



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