Weaning the Foal 81 



slavish adherence to custom which ordains that this supply 

 of Nature's own food shall be suddenly withdrawn from the 

 foal, simply because the Calendar shows that five months 

 have elapsed since the animal was born. The theory under- 

 lying the system generally in vogue in this particular branch 

 of stud management, roughly stated, would appear to be to 

 aid and abet the foal in extracting the maximum amount of 

 nutrition from the mare from the day of its conception to 

 the day of parturition, and after foaling to deprive the foal 

 of that nutrition at the earliest possible moment. Anything 

 more diametrically opposed to Nature it would be difficult to 

 conceive. 



ADVANTAGES OF LATE WEANING. 



The advocates of early weaning do not, I imagine, base 

 their action on the ground that what is so beneficial for 

 twenty weeks, becomes suddenly harmful in the twenty-first 

 week. That, of course, would be absurd. One of the reasons 

 advanced in justification of weaning at five months is that of 

 getting the business accomplished in good time, so that the 

 foal may get over the fretting stage and become reconciled 

 to the new order of things. Reason number two is that the 

 mare's milk deteriorates in quality, and that the foal is 

 better off without it. A third reason is that the longer the 

 weaning is delayed, the greater the risk of the mare 

 " slipping " or aborting the embryo she may be carrying. 

 My reply to reason number one is that in any case the foal 

 will fret for its dam whether weaned at five or eight months ; 

 the important difference is that at eight months old the foal's 

 digestive organs are so fully developed and capable of 

 properly assimilating a corn diet, that the withdrawal of the 

 mare's milk will very much less affect its progress than it 

 would that of a foal three months younger. The mental dis- 



