II] OF HORSES AND MARES 207 



soft hoofs. At five months they should be given, 

 when brought back to the stable, barley flour 

 ground up with bran, or any other product of the 

 I soil they may fancy. 



12 When they have completed their first year they 

 should be given barley and bran as long as they 

 are suckled by their mothers, and should not be 

 weaned until they have turned two years old. 

 When they are standing with their mothers you 

 should occasionally pat and stroke them, so that 

 they may not be terrified when they are separated 

 from them, and for the same reason bits ^ should be 

 hung up in the stable, so that the foals may get 

 used to their appearance and to the jingling of 



13 them when they are moved. As soon as the foals 

 have learnt to come to hand, you should some- 

 times put a boy on their backs, for the first two or 

 three times lying flat on his stomach, afterwards 

 he may sit. This is to be done when the colt is 

 three '^ years old, for then is the time when he grows 



' Frenos. Vergil has made much use of this cliapter. Here 

 f. Georg., ill, 182 : 



Primus equi labor est animos atquc arma videre 

 Bellantuniy lituosque pati, tractuque gementcm 

 Ferre rotam et stabulo frenos audire sonantes. 

 Turn magis atque magis blandis gaudere magistri 

 LaudibuSy et plausae sonitum cervicis amare 

 A tque haec iam prima depulsus ab ubere Tnatris 

 Audiat. 

 ' Trimus. Cf. Vergil (Georg., iii, 190): 



At tribus exactis ubi quarta accesserit aestas ' 

 Carpere mox gyrum incipiat^ etc. 



