MANAGEMENT OF FOALS. 311 



should never be left alone till this has taken place, as it is dan- 

 gerous to do so for fear of the mare doing a fatal inj ury to her 

 offsjjring. Before the coat of the foal is dry, the mane should 

 be combed all on one side ; by which precaution that ragged 

 unsightly look is avoided which it has if part hangs on one side 

 and part on the other. For the first twenty-four hours nothing 

 besides warm gruel and a very little hay should be given to the 

 mare ; but when the secretion of milk is fully established she 

 requires oats, bran mashes with malt, carrots, turnips, clover, or 

 green food in some shape, according to the season of the year. 



MANAGEMENT OF THE FOAL. 



Handling the foal should be commenced as soon as he is 

 born, because it is at that time that he is most easily rendered 

 tractable, and regardless of the presence of his attendant, who 

 should make a practice of rubbing his head, picking up his feet, 

 &c., long before he actually wants to do any thing with those 

 parts. But if these acts are postponed, till they are really wanted 

 to be done, the colt is wild and unmanageable, and neither 

 physic nor anything else can be administered without a degree 

 of violence very dangerous to its welfare. The foal is very 

 liable to diarrhcea, and it should at once be checked by a drench 

 of rice-water, with one or two drachms of laudanum, which will 

 almost always stop it, if repeated after every loose motion. The 

 sun should in all cases be admitted to the box, whether in winter 

 or summer, and without it no j^oung animal will long be in 

 health. Kthe weather is very severe, with wet as well a? cold, 

 the upper half only of the door should be opened while the sun 

 is out; but if the weather is dry, the mare and foal may be 

 allowed to run into the yard ; or if not very cold and frosty, into 

 the paddock for a short time. By the end of the month the foal 

 will begin to eat crushed oats, which may be given in its own 

 low manger, and with the mare tied up to hers. As many of 

 them as the foal will eat will do good ; and it never happens, 

 that I have heard, that a young foal will eat more than enough 

 of this food, which is the main stay of the young racer. Much of 

 the success of this kind of stock depends upon their early forcing 

 by means of oats ; and as far as he is concerned, the mare as 



