76 The Practical Stud Groom. 



of going off on a tour of inspection round the stable yard. 

 All such risks and sources of delay will be avoided when 

 foals are well broken to lead at the earliest possible age. 

 This admits of each man taking a mare and foal, the mare 

 in his left hand and the foal in his right, both going to and 

 from the paddocks, especially when a public road has to be 

 traversed. 



As Summer advances, the early foals will have learnt to 

 eat oats and bran from the dam's mangers, and will be found 

 claiming their share of the mare's daily rations. That share 

 will vary according to the disposition of the dam. If she is 

 a good mother the foal will be a " working partner " till the 

 job is finished ; but in many cases the maternal instinct does 

 not include sharing the tasty corn ration, in which case the 

 luckless foal remains a keenly-interested spectator of the 

 feast, at a discreet distance from the threatening maternal 

 heels and teeth. When the foal has reached this age, the 

 only way to regulate the amount of corn it is desirable that 

 it should get, and also ensure that it gets a chance to eat it, 

 is to tie up the mare to her own manger, and fix up a separate 

 manger, well out of the mare's reach, for her foal. 



With regard to the proper amount of oats for a three 

 months' old foal, it would vary so much with a dozen foals 

 that it will be more satisfactory if I say that the supply 

 must be governed by the demand, i.e., ascertaining by actual 

 experiment how much each individual foal will eat up clean. 

 It is most important to bear in mind that the digestive 

 organs of a three months' old foal are not very much 

 developed. Also that it is only the food that is thoroughly 

 digested and assimilated that yields nutriment; any surplus 

 is not merely wasted, but is seriously detrimental to the 



