458 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK in. 



we get our young stock to grass in summer ; in winter we feed them 

 twice a day with chopped clover, pulped swede turnips, and carrots 

 mixed with crushed oats ; and it is very important for young stock to 

 be kept improving by beginning to feed them as soon as the grass 

 begins to fail say, by giving a little corn (oats) about the second 

 week in October. (5.) Horses at work (cart-horses) we allow about 

 half a bushel of oats, mixed with either chopped clover or wheat chaff. 

 Of course in summer we give them green food, what they will eat, and 

 less corn. 



Mr. Arthur Hansom, Hitchin, says, as regards the feeding of cart 

 horses : The best and safest food for brood mares and young stock is 

 good grass whenever it can be got ; but during winter and early spring 

 artificial feeding is also necessary. I find a mixture of bran, pulped 

 roots, and chaff, with a small allowance of the best linseed or Waterloo 

 round cake, and perhaps a few crushed oats, given twice daily on the 

 pasture or in the yard, veiy useful and safe. The addition of the 

 linseed in the cake helps the digestive organs, and renders them less 

 liable to irregularities causing stoppage and inflammation, from which 

 the heaviest losses of horse breeders often occur. Stallions, of course, 

 require a more generous diet in the covering season ; a small quantity 

 of linseed in some form or other is a very useful addition to the oats, 

 beans, or peas which form their main feed. My working mares get 

 during the winter two bushels of crushed oats, mixed with pulped 

 mangel and chaff ; also from one to two trusses (56 Ib.) of clover or 

 sainfoin hay per week, and when doing the heaviest work half a bushel 

 of split beans in addition. In summer, the pulped roots are replaced 

 by green rye, oats, and tares, chaffed, and the corn considerably 

 reduced. Sometimes they are turned out to grass at night and on 

 Sundays, but they are more, often kept in yards. I notice almost 

 invariably that high feeding of mares during the covering season 

 means a short crop of foals the succeeding spring. A cool and natural 

 dietary is a necessity where the main object, as with me, is to secure 

 a number of good healthy foals. The feeding of foals after weaning is 

 most important, and plenty of good bran with a few crushed oats or 

 Waterloo cake, given once or twice daily, is a great assistance to them. 



Sir Charles W. Strickland writes : I have no definite system of 

 feeding or management either of mares and foals or young stock. I go 

 upon the principle of keeping all animals not in work as much out of 

 doors as possible, and taking care that all animals in the stables should 

 not have too much corn and too little work, which is the cause of nine- 

 tenths of the evils that horseflesh is liable to. Stallions I ride or 

 work in harness, just as I do other horses, and consider that it is 

 the only way to keep them healthy and good-tempered. 



Another competent authority says : The mare during the latter 

 period of gestation should be well fed and should have plenty of daily 

 exercise. Idle mares may be kept at grass ; if so, they should have 

 a shelter-hovel, in case of wet or severe weather setting in. Mares 

 who have the range of a large pasture will sufficiently exercise them- 

 selves. During the winter and spring months 6 Ib. crushed oats, 



