98 Management and Feeding of Heavy Horses 



patronage of the public, besides which it costs as much to keep and 

 attend to an inferior horse as to a good one, or usually rather more. 

 One does not realize the difficulty and extra trouble there is with 

 horses that are subject to defects of any sort, in bringing them out 

 in presentable form to the public, hiding their defects, patching up 

 their unsoundness, and keeping them in trim for work; whilst at 

 the end of the season the money earned may be less than the cost 

 of their keep. Not only must the animal be a good and a sound 

 one, but he must also be of a type to suit the district. 



A stallion owner must have judgment, not only to know a good 

 horse, but also to know which type of horse would succeed best in 

 the district, by pleasing the breeders and mating suitably with the 

 mares. He must also know how to select and place his horses, each 

 in his proper sphere of work. The stallion may be a home-reared 

 one, or he may be purchased at weaning time as many are, or he 

 may be acquired later in life. 



A farmer is sometimes fortunate in rearing a good promising 

 foal, and as he has perhaps felt the inconvenience of sending his 

 mares for long distances to meet the horse, he decides to keep the 

 foal and use him as a stud horse at home when he attains the proper 

 age. Or perhaps a stallion keeper (a profession distinct from 

 ordinary farming) may come past, take a fancy to the foal, and by 

 offering a good price tempt the breeder to sell. Many of the best 

 stud horses have been bought for this special purpose at the time 

 they were being weaned. 



TREATMENT OF COLTS 



Whether reared at home or bought from a breeder, the after 

 treatment of the colt must be on similar lines. Granted that a 

 breeder has the good fortune to have a colt of the right stamp, 

 descended from sound parents, with plenty of bone and muscle, 

 good wide feet, open heels, hard tough hoofs, correctly-set pasterns, 

 flat-boned limbs, big knees, strong clean hocks, masculine head, 

 strong neck, nicely sloping shoulder, stout back, well-sprung ribs, 

 strong muscular loin and quarters, with tail well set on — a colt of 

 this description may well be saved from the castrator, put on extra 

 good keep, and watched for a time to see how he develops. 



Good feeding is necessary after weaning and all through the 

 first winter. A liberal quantity of sound oats, with a little bran 

 and plenty of well-harvested clover hay, should be allowed until the 

 grass comes again in the spring. As colts seldom do so well singly 

 as when wintered along with others of the same age, our prospective 



