REABING COLTS. 59 



share from the smaller trough placed where the mare 

 could not get at it. They should have two feeds a day of 

 about three quarts each feed, not quite so much as that till 

 after the mare was stinted again. When the colt is about 

 five months old, say the first of November, I would wean 

 him ; first having broken him to the halter so that he 

 would be as handy to lead as an old horse. The middle 

 of August I would have one of the smaller fields of 

 corn seeded to rye between the rows. Through one cor- 

 ner of the field runs the spring branch, its bed clean 

 gravel and sand that has been placed there, so there shall 

 be no mud for our little heroes to stand in as they quench 

 their thirst. On the side near the house is a long shed 

 with a trough, where the twenty colts we are now wean- 

 ing, will have plenty of room to eat their ration of oats 

 without interfering with each other. Tn this field we turn 

 them, placing those foaled the earliest in first ; but as a 

 general rule, no matter about the age, it is best to com- 

 mence weaning as soon as the first of November, before 

 the succulence of the young rye has been injured by frost. 

 The colts will improve in condition on that and the 

 oats that are fed in the shed, and will also nibble at the 

 ears of corn not yet gathered from the stalk. They will 

 soon become reconciled to the loss of the mother by the 

 company of each other, and it will be far better than any 

 circus show to see them play, or come rushing through 

 the corn-stalks, when you call them to the evening meal, 

 always given by yourself or under your immediate super- 

 vision. 



Here we will let them stay, till the weather becomes 

 cold enough to require their being placed in warmer quar- 

 ters at night and on stormy days. On the sunny side of 

 the barn we have built a large shed ; on the west side is 

 a stone-wall which is banked up for half its height ; the 

 south side is boarded, and the east fixed with sliding 



