30 RACEHORSES IN AUSTRALIA 



and whilst the grass seeds are still present in abundance, I believe that 

 artificial food is thrown away. But each mare and foal should be watched as 

 a cat watches a mouse. Neither must be suffered to endure the slightest check 

 for a single day — no, not for one hour. The careful, experienced horse master 

 can tell at a glance as soon as one of his charges is showing the smallest 

 symptom of "going back," and he must begin feeding instantly. If he has not 

 postponed too long, it is surprising how little it takes in the way of oats and 

 chaff and bran to keep your mares and foals in the best order imaginable. A 

 fev/ handfuls of good, sweet, oaten chaff, a couple of pints of coarse bran, 

 always moistened, a pint or two of well-crushed oats, will be found more than 

 a sufficiency until well into the autumn. But see that every mare and foal 

 receives what you have apportioned them. 1 fall out with many of my friends 

 in this item of stud management. Most people feed their mares together, 

 perhaps in a number of different mangers, but yet not separated one from 

 the other. 1 maintain that this is wrong. You cannot tell what each receives, 

 and their appetite varies to a wonderful degree. I say that you should yard 

 your mares and foals, and stall each of them within the yard, with their own 

 separate manger, until the mob have finished their meal. Twice a day is quite 

 enough, but feed as early in the morning as possible, and not too late in the 

 afternoon. 



In the winter the oats and chaff are increased, perhaps to five pints of oats 

 for each mare and foal, a kerosene tinful of chaff, and three or four pints of 

 bran. That is on an average, but we know that some ■wiU take more, and a few 

 less. In the really cold weather, a couple of double handfuls of boiled barley, 

 night and morning, is not only very pleasant, but it is a capital supplier of 

 "caloric," and the appetite is sharpened by the addition of a handful of brown 

 sugar. In the cold, frosty nights, or still more so in the wet, windy ones of winter, 

 mares and foals need something extra in the way of heat producers. The 

 mares, if past the first blush of their youth, should be rugged. I have heard 

 some stud masters decry boiled barley as anathema. I v/ould agree with 

 them if they fed their stock upon such a food, and used nothing else. But as 

 an adjunct to their habitual oats and chaff and bran, it is magnificent. You 

 cannot have too much change, and anything is wholesome for them, in well- 

 regulated quantities, which horses will readily eat. We are careless of details 

 in Australia, and only a few studs are worked by the owner in person. And it is 

 the personal attention to minutiae which is the main factor in winning success. 

 There is no industry in the world in which loving care does so much good, in 

 which carelessness and indifference so quickly spell ruin. 



You may have a hundred stud grooms ere you drop onto the individual 

 who has knowledge, honesty, industry and enthusiasm combined. Therefore, 

 there are only a very few stud farms which are managed as they should be. 

 And one of the most flagrant of faults in management is this: Let us imagine 

 that you have decided upon sending your best couple of mares to a certain 

 horse, away from home. Theoretically his blood suits that which flows in a 

 purple stream through the veins of your mares. Both mares are in foal, and 

 you truck them, and, perhaps, accompany them yourself, to the desired haven 

 and harem some two hundred miles away. They are in rare condition. You 

 hear by letter that they are safely over their foaling, and before the new year 

 they are returned home. They arrive in miserable condition. The season has 

 not been a very good one. They have not been fed. They have fallen away 

 to shadows. Being good mothers, they have given of their substance to their 

 foals until they have nothing more to give. Their ribs are sticking through 

 their skin. Their coat is dry and rusty, and emits a disagreeable smell. The 



