Breeding Hunters 51 



Our solicitude for the foal before it is born is to produce 

 a variation that will place it above the level of its parents, 

 the better to fit it for the one special purpose in life for 

 which it is intended. We have left to the sire the task of 

 supplying the colt with the quality we desire. It only 

 remains for us to produce size, which, as we have shown, is 

 the result of food and feeding principally. 



When the owner can provide succulent food and 

 stables of sufficient warmth, January is the best time for the 

 young hopeful to arrive. If these conditions cannot be 

 fulfilled the colt had better postpone his coming until there 

 is a good bite of grass. In either case, during the season 

 before, if ensilage is not at hand, a patch of roots — car- 

 rots or beets — should be provided as a succulent food. Dur- 

 ing the autumn before, a patch of rye should be sown for a 

 soiling-crop, to be followed by sowings of vetches and pease 

 or oats and pease, so that by fly-time mare and foal may be 

 put in a box during the daytime with a liberal feeding of 

 green forage. Mare and colt should be turned out to pas- 

 ture during the night only ; otherwise one not only feeds 

 the colt through the mare, but myriads of flies through the 

 colt. Mother and ofi^spring will thus be provided with 

 plenty of exercise, and if the stable is properly ventilated, 

 and darkened to exclude the flies, as it should be, you will 

 have surrounded both matron and foal with the very best 

 conditions for the comfort and happiness of the one and 

 the growth of the other. 



A feeding of bran with a few crushed oats once a day in 

 the stall will be found the best possible investment. The 

 feed should be in a trough long and low enough to enable 



