I oo Management and Feeding of Heavy Horses 



to be kept indoors, he must have green food carried to him, such as 

 vetches, rye, mowed grass or clover, as much in reason as he will eat 

 of it, and a small feed of oats in addition. 



When indoors, exercise must be allowed him ; the run of a large 

 bullock yard will do, and will save time and labour in hand leading. 

 The yard must be kept well littered with straw, and the manure 

 must not be allowed to accumulate under him until it ferments. 

 His feet may be spoiled if he is kept on hot manure. 



The same treatment may be continued through the second 

 winter, increasing the quantity of oats and bran as the grass fails, 

 and of course allowing as much hay as he will eat, seeing also that 

 the fences are strong and secure. As colts at this age are wicked 

 and playful, it is better to keep them by themselves, so that they 

 cannot injure others or be injured by them. The yard and shed 

 must be kept for his use, or, if available, the paddock and shed. 

 Indeed, the ideal arrangement for a playful entire colt is to keep 

 him in a strongly-fenced grass paddock, with a sheltered shed in the 

 corner of it. This paddock may be utilized as his winter quarters 

 for the after years of his life. An ordinary hedge is scarcely to be 

 depended on for fencing in an entire horse unless protected and 

 strengthened by a line or two of barbed wire. The wire must not 

 be stretched in the hedge or very close to it, or the horse may injure 

 himself with it before he is aware of its presence; but if it is 

 stretched about 2 or 3 ft. from the hedge inside the field, the 

 horse will ascertain its presence and its character and will keep 

 at a respectful distance from it. With this safeguard almost any 

 sort of hedge will do round the paddock. In the absence of a 

 hedge, a strong safe fence may be erected with disused railway 

 sleepers set close together in a row on their ends in a trench 2 ft. 

 deep, and well rammed in and fastened together by a light rail at 

 the top. This kind of fence costs a good deal to fix up, as old 

 sleepers are not always to be had cheaply, but it has the advantage 

 of being very durable, very strong, and affording some little shelter 

 from cold winds, besides being of a nature that the horse cannot 

 possibly hurt himself by coming in contact with it. 



The shed, which is useful as a protection from the sun in summer 

 and from the cold blasting storms of winter, need not be an expen- 

 sive erection; no bricks or mortar are needed. On farms where 

 there is some rough timber and plenty of straw suitable sheds for 

 colts may be run up very cheaply. The late Thomas Shaw, of 

 Lancashire, who owned about half a hundred entire horses, had 

 a specially-designed shed of his own put up at little cost with the 

 materials at hand. These picturesque, quaint-looking hovels were 



