322 REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 



given to it. It is not necessary or proper that it be pampered; but it is im- 

 portant to its growth and vigour, that il be supplied with sufficient food. 



The male foal intended for agricultural purposes must be castrated; and the 

 best period for performing the operation is at the age of twelve months. Some 

 do it before weaning, but it is better that it be delayed till the masculine form 

 of the animal has been more developed. 



If the colt be intended for the saddle, it is well that from this period it be 

 accustomed to gentle handling by the person who feeds it, for this is a mean of 

 rendering it docile and good-tempered. But however this be, nothing but kind- 

 ness is to be shown to these young creatures, and any thing like rough treat- 

 ment is to be carefully avoided. 



The colts are kept "in their past ares during the summer, and when these fail 

 before winter, the animals may be put into a stable or yard with sheds, and 

 plentifully littered with straw, like the young oxen upon the farm. They may 

 receive straw for half the winter, and hay towards spring when the straw be- 

 comes dry and unpalatable; and turnips, or any green food, should be supplied 

 to them freely throughout the winter. It is a great error to starve colts, for 

 this injures their growth and vigour in a degree far beyond the value of the 

 increased food required. Although they may be confined in a yard in the 

 manner described, it is greatly better, where convenience allows, that they 

 have a piece of ground on which they may run in winter. This is favourable, 

 in an eminent degree, to their health^ and the state of their feet. 



But, however the colts are managed in winter, as early in spring as the pas- 

 tures will allow, they are to be turned out to graze in the fields, where they are 

 to be kept during summer; and in the following winter put again into the 

 yards or paddock, and treated in the same manner as before. 



And they are to be treated in a similar manner in the following summer and 

 winter; after which, namely, when three years old, they will be in a condition 

 to be broken in, and, if draught-horses, employed in the work of the farm. 

 They may be taken up for training even in the third autumn of their age, 

 though at this period the work should be very gentle. 



A farm-horse usually receives little training, though it is better that a par- 

 tial training, as in the case of the horse intended for the saddle, be given. But 

 whether this be done or not, the colt should have a bridle with an easy bit put 

 upon him for a few days, and allowed to champ it for an hour or two at a time 

 in the stall. The harness being then put upon him by degrees, he may be 

 trained to the different labours required of him. In general, the farm-horse, 

 working with his fellows, is easily brought to be obedient. 



But when a farm-horse is four or five years old before he is put to work, or if 

 he is a stallion, or if he shows any vice, a little more care may be proper, and a 

 partial training, as if he were intended for the saddle, given him. And if he is a 

 valuable horse, and fit also for the saddle and the carriage, the more complete 

 the training given to him the better. 



The art of training the horse for the saddle is now well understood, and the 

 rude and violent practices of former times are generally abandoned by all who 

 have any competent knowledge of the subject. In every case, gentleness and 

 kind treatment are to be strictly observed in the management of the colt. He 

 is first to be taught his duties, and corrected afterwards only when necessary 

 to enforce submission. Fear, in the training of the horse, is that feeling Avith 

 which he is soon endued, that he is under the dominion of a more powerful 

 agent, whose will he cannot resist. Implicit submission is to be enforced, 

 gently in so far as instruction is concerned, but by calling into action the prin- 

 ciple of fear, when this is required to produce obedience. Decision and firm- 

 ness, with a resolution to be obeyed, after the horse has been fairly taught the 

 duties that are required of him, are altogether distinct from violence and cru- 

 elty. Nothing is so destructive to the temper of a horse as useless coercion, 

 and all the defects of temper, when they exist in the young horse, arise, in the 

 great majority of cases, from injurious treatment. But we are here chiefly to 

 consider the management of the horse as an animal of labour. 



The farm-horse demands, neither in the training nor in the feeding, that 

 nicety which is required in the case of the horse designed for rapid motion or 

 irregular labour. He requires merely to be maintained in good order, never 



