HORSE— CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



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handling the part on successive days, a 

 leading-rein should be buckled on, and 

 the young thing enticed to follow the 

 groom without any absolute coercion. 

 At the same time it must be made to feel 

 that resistance is useless ; and if it begins 

 to pull, it must on no account be allowed 

 to get away, the groom yielding as long 

 as the foal pulls straight back, but coerc- 

 ing it gently with a side strain. A care- 

 fully handled foal will rarely give any 

 trouble in this way; but there is an aston- 

 ishing variation in the power which dif- 

 ferent men have over the animal creation. 

 Some will gain control without using 

 the slighest violence, while others will be 

 always fighting with their charge, and 

 after all, will not be able to do nearly as 

 much with them as their more quiet and 

 clever rivals. The latter class should 

 never be allowed to have anything to do 

 with young horses ; and though there 

 may be occasional exceptions which re- 

 quire severe measures, yet if once a man 

 is found resorting to violence with a foal 

 which he has had the management of 

 from the first, he should, in our opinion, 

 be removed from his post; or, at all 

 events, he should be carefully watched, 

 and a repetition of the offense ought to 

 be considered as a notice to quit. Long 

 before the coming among us of Mr. 

 Rarey, this was recognized amongst the 

 most extensive breeders of horses in this 

 country; and though cruelty was not 

 unknown among them, any more than it 

 is now, it was fully recognized as not 

 only an unnecessary but an unsatisfactory 

 means of mastering the horse. 



MARE, FOAL, Weaning and After 

 Treatment of the. — The usual age for 

 weaning the foal is about the end of 

 the sixth month, that time being 

 selected because the dam is generally 

 about "half gone" with her next foal 

 and cannot bear the double drain upon 

 her system. Nor does the foal benefit 

 much by the milk after this age, the 

 teeth and stomach being quite strong 

 enough to crop and digest the succulent 

 grasses that are to be had from August 

 to October, those being the months dur- 

 ing which the several breeds attain the 

 middle of their first year. If the autumn 

 is a dry one, and grass is scanty, a few 

 steamed turnips or carrots may be mixed 

 with bran and given to the foal night and 



morning; but, as a rule, unless it is to be 

 highly forced into its growth for the pur- 

 pose of early using, it will require only 

 the grass which it can pick up when it is 

 turned out. Three or four foals are gen- 

 erally placed together in the same pad- 

 dock for company, and in this way they 

 miss their dams far less than if confined 

 by themselves. Care should be taken 

 that nothing is left within their reach 

 which can do injury, every fence and 

 gate being carefully examined to see that 

 no projecting bolt, nail, or rail is likely to 

 lay hold of their bodies or limbs as they 

 gallop about in their play. Foals of all 

 ages are mischievous animals, and the 

 better fed they are the more inclined they 

 seem to lay hold of anything which at- 

 tracts their notice. 



Besides the shelter of a hovel, which 

 we have already insisted on, the foal re- 

 quires throughout its first winter, good 

 feeding proportioned to its breeding and 

 the purposes for which it is intended. 

 Racing colts are allowed three or four 

 feeds of bruised oats with steamed car- 

 rots 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 al- 

 lowed 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. 



COLTS, BREAKING, How to.— Colts, 

 generally, are not taken in hand early 

 enough for breaking, and become wild 



