94 HORSE-BREEDING FOR FARMERS CHAP, 
bird darting from the fence ; he knows the ways of 
the world, and has an intelligence all the greater for 
its early development. A foal may bé weaned 
towards the end of September or in October, and he 
will be all the better fitted to encounter the hard- 
ships of his first winter if he has been living out of 
doors day and night throughout the summer. It is 
highly desirable when he has learnt to eat that he 
should have his little ration of crushed oats or bran- 
mash when his dam is having her feed in the earlier 
part of the year; and for keeping foals in sleek, 
healthy condition, a teacupful of lime-water and 
linseed oil well mixed together and put into the 
bran-mash once a week is effective in keeping skin 
and bowels in order. It may be said that this sort of 
thing is all very well in a gentleman’s stable, but it is 
not worth a farmer’s while to trouble about such details. 
My reply is that nothing is truer economy than to do 
well to the foal, for the foal is father of the horse just 
in the same way as “the child is father of the man.” 
It is during the first eighteen months of a horse’s 
life that the whole foundation of his future career is 
laid. In this period the bone and framework is to 
be made and receive its form, and strength received 
to overcome any defects and infirmities which, with- 
out generous treatment, will become intensified. 
The first winter is the hardest time in a horse’s life ; 
he is an orphan, deprived of the shelter and the com- 
panionship of his dam, and if a colt, after the hard- 
ships of winter he will probably have to undergo the 
shock of castration in the spring—and for all this, 
and against the ailments of youth, it is necessary 
that he should be well fortified. I am no advocate. 
