THE HORSE BREEDING. 581 



can eat with her, it will soon learn to share the oats and bran 

 with its dam, and there is no better feed for each. It furnishes, 

 with grass, the elements for milk, for bones and fibre, far better 

 than corn or food richer in starch. 



If the dam is a very poor suckler, as many mares are, the 

 colt will soon learn to drink cow's milk, which will be the best 

 feed for it. Skim-milk may be given, but it should be supple- 

 mented with flax-seed jelly or scalded oil-cake meal. A table- 

 spoonful night and morning of the meal will be enough to be- 

 gin with. It may be increased gradually, until by the time a 

 colt is six months old it will be the better for a pint of meal 

 with its milk and grass. The large breeds of colts will need 

 more, and will bear two pints a day. A better plan, however, 

 is to teach them to eat with the dam also, and furnish the colts 

 bruised oats and bran in addition. Oats and wheat-bran supply 

 the elements for forming bone and fibre, and keep the bowels in 

 good condition. At this age the colt will, on such feed, make 

 strong growth of bone and muscle rather than fat. 



The true idea of raising colts is not to see how little they 

 can live on, but how much healthful growth they can be made 

 to make for the food consumed. All young animals will pay 

 more for the food consumed than the older ones, if growth and 

 uniform development and not fattening is the object. 



Abortion. After three months and up to the fifth month, 

 abortion, if it occur, is more likely than at any other time dur- 

 ing gestation. As a prevention the mare should not be excited 

 by foul smells, nor the sight of blood or dying animals, nor 

 frightened so as to greatly excite the nervous system. 



During this period her feed should be increased to meet the 

 increased demands made by the growing fcetus, and its 

 growth is now rapid. This precaution of increased feed not 

 only prevents a weakening of the mare, which of itself is a pro- 

 voking cause, but it keeps up her vigor and strengthens the 

 coming foal. " Good feeding and moderate exercise at this 

 time will be the best preventive of mishaps," says Youatt. He 

 also says : " Mares that have once aborted should never be al- 

 lowed with other mares, between the fourth and fifth months." 



