164 THE HORSK. 
allowed three or four feeds of bruised oats with steamed carrots or 
turnips, and sometimes steamed hay; but the general plan is to give as 
much as they will eat of the best upland hay, in its natural state, after 
they have finished their allowance of corn. Young stock intended to be 
sold as hunters and first-class carriage-horses are always allowed half a 
peck of bruised oats, and a few carrots and turnips will not be thrown 
away upon them. Hacks, and inferior young stock of all kinds, get 
through the winter upon hay and barley-straw, part being sometimes cut 
into chaff, and mixed with a quartern of bran, daily; and if they are very 
low in flesh, a few oats being added. During severe frosts the straw-yard 
is the best place for the foal, on account of the hardness of the ground in 
the fields, and here he will easily keep himself warm and dry, and he can 
be attended to according to his wants. Let the breeder, however, con- 
stantly bear in mind that a check given to the growth in the first winter 
is never afterwards entirely recovered, and that if the colt which has 
experienced it turns out well he would have been still better without it. 
CASTRATION. 
THE OPERATION for converting the horse into the gelding is usually per- 
formed just before weaning, in the autumn of the first year, upon such 
colts as are intended for any purposes but those of the racecourse. Much, 
however, will depend upon the development of the individual, it being 
ascertained that the longer a colt remains uncut the more is the fore 
quarter developed, and especially the head and neck. If, therefore, these 
parts, as well as the shoulders, are already forward in their growth, the 
operation should be performed early ; while, if the contrary state exists, it 
should be deferred till a later period ; but it is seldom desirable to postpone 
it beyond the age of twelve months. As to the operation itself, the pre- 
paration necessary, and the subsequent treatment, full directions are givan 
at page O77, et scq. 
CHAPTER XII 
THE BREAKING OF THE COLT. 
MR. RAREY’S PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE—ORDINARY METHOD OF BREAKING FOR THE 
SADDLE—SUPERIORITY OF THE LATTER WHEN PROPERLY CARRIED OUT—-BREAKING 
TO HARNESS—DR. BUNTING’S BREAK. 
THE YEAR 1858 will ever be memorable in the annals of the English 
stable for the success of Mr. Rarey and his partner, Mr. Goodenough, in 
extracting 25,0002. from the pockets of English horsemen by the promise 
of a new method of breaking and training the animal which they all loved 
so well, but so often found not quite obedient to their wills. The plans 
by which obedience was to be ensured were kept a profound secret, but 
to prove Mr. Rarey’s power, the French coaching stallion, Stafford, the 
English thoroughbred, Cruiser, and a grey colt in the possession of Mr. 
Anderson, of Piccadilly, all notoriously vicious, were privately subdued, 
and afterwards exhibited in public. Subscribers were invited to pay ten 
guineas each, with the engagement that as soon as five hundred names 
