14 THE HORSE 



It is a mistake to leave foals out with their mothers 

 in cold rain storms such as we have in the autumn or 

 early spring. A warm, summer rain will not hurt the 

 foal, but a cold northeasterly storm is likely to give him 

 colic or a cough, or to encourage the development of 

 worms in him, and to retard his growth. "There is 

 no more pitiable sight," says the Horse World, "than 

 a mare and foal standing in the open, with their coats 

 turned the wrong way, and shivering with cold." 



A hot, midsummer sun may do a foal as much or 

 even more harm, if there is no tree or shed to protect 

 him. For a foal born in early spring the sun is of 

 course very beneficial; but the summer sun is a differ- 

 ent matter. "A real baklng-out in the hot, unbroken 

 sunlight will give the foal a set-back from which he 

 may never recover." ^ 



The foal may be weaned at six months of age, but 

 long before that he should be accustomed to eating oats 

 and bran, so that he will not fall off in health and con- 

 dition when weaned. As a rule, he will begin to munch 

 the oats in his dam's grain box at the tender age of two 

 or three weeks, and he can be encouraged in this by 

 mixing a little sugar with the grain. 



A good practice, when mare and foal are at grass, is 

 to erect in one corner of the pasture a bar high enough 

 to exclude the mare, but low enough to permit the foal to 

 pass beneath it, and to put a separate grain box for the 

 foal within the space protected by the bar. 



A good grain ration for the foal, after weaning, is a 

 mixture of oats, bran, and oatmeal In the proportion of 



^ The National Stockman. 



