450 AMEEICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



fected, growing unnaturally large and stiff, so that be moves 

 heavily, and with lack of suppleness. What he loses at this 

 time no subsequent care can entirely make up, while with 

 the treatment he is likely to receive from such an owner he 

 can never be other than an inferior animal. Many of the 

 diseases that develop in after years to the horse's ruin have 

 their foundations laid by mismanagement during colthood. 

 There are vastly more horses with stiff limbs and spiritless, 

 heavy movement, whose condition is referable to this cause 

 alone, than one farmer in fifty is willing to believe. It will 

 cost less to put up a stable sufficient to accommodate six 

 coUs, than the loss, in a single winter, upon one good colt 

 that is left out in the weather to shift for himself. 



Along with housing comes another consideration of the 

 highest importance — feeding the colt. The pasture is em- 

 phatically the home for him, so that while it lasts there need 

 be no further trouble upon this head. But in winter let 

 every colt have his separate stall in a dry, warm stable, with 

 good bedding and all the attention, in respect to rubbing and 

 currying, that is bestowed upon the full-grown horse. His 

 diet should be a mild and generous one, suited to his young 

 and tender state. Let the owner be chary of giving much 

 dry food. Chopped feed, moistened, is more necessary for 

 the colt than for even the mature horse. A bran -mash should 

 be given him as often as once or twice a week regularly. 



This seems to be an appropriate place for considering the 

 question of "inherited diseases," concerning which so much 

 has been said and written. English veterinarians have pa- 

 raded this subject before the public to an extent that, to our 

 thinking, is absolutely ridiculous. According to them, every 

 disease of the parents will be transmitted to the colt, who 

 will be afflicted with the infirmities of both. Says Youatt, 

 judicious an author as he generally ig : " There is scarcely 

 a disease by which either of the parents is affected that the 

 foal does not inherit, or at least show a predisposition to. 

 Even the consequences of ill-usage or hard work will descend 



