Avery's own farrier. 173 



black pepper; add half a pint of warm water and feed 

 it to him with a large spoon. 



Some may have a curiosity to know before the colt is 

 foaled whether it is to be a horse or mare colt; if so, 

 watch the mare at the time she is making bag, and if the 

 right side fills first and keeps the largest, you may ex- 

 pect a horse colt, and if the left side springs first, &c., 

 you can expect a mare colt. As far as my experience 

 goes this has been almost invariably the case, though 

 there are undoubtedly exceptions to this rule. 



It may be beneficial to some one to know how to de- 

 termine the color and height a colt will attain when full 

 grown. Correct conclusions may be arrived at in this 

 respect in the following manner: The color in after life 

 will be the same as it is (or nearly so) on the colt around 

 the eyes and hairs on the nose, anywhere from four days 

 to four months old. There is a rule to go by that a man 

 may know, within a very trifling variation, the height a 

 colt will attain when full grown, by which he can tell 

 something about what sort of a horse with proper care 

 he is t') expect. When the colt arrives at the age of 

 four months, or as soon as it is perfectly straightened in 

 its limbs, measure from the edge of the hair on its hoof 

 to the middle of the knee joint, and for every inch that 

 it measures here it will grow to the height of a hand of 

 four inches when its growth is matured. Thus, if the 

 distance be found here sixteen inches, it will make a 

 horse sixteen hands high, or vary according to the pro- 

 portional distance found at this place. This rule holds 

 good for all the small class of horses, and equally so with 



