VIIl THE FOAL 95 
of coddling young horses, but to fit them for grow- 
ing, thriving, and enduring cold, their diet should be 
a generous one, of crushed oats, bran, turnips, chaff, 
and good hay, and anything extra afforded them in 
wintry weather will pay well. Should strangles or 
influenza seize the foal that has been weaned in 
October, kept in a poor pasture in November, and 
on short or bad rations during winter, what chance 
has he of surviving or of quick recovery? If he 
lives he will be left so exhausted that his growth 
will be permanently stunted, whereas, if equipped 
against all events by a liberal diet, he will generally 
defy attacks such as those mentioned. Throughout 
late autumn and winter, foals should be housed at 
night, but not put into close, ill-ventilated places. I 
have sometimes seen the door of some outhouse 
thrown open and a mob of foals and yearlings 
plunge out, followed by a rush of hot, fetid air— 
this much more likely to knock you down than the 
actual charge of the prisoners out of the steaming 
black-hole into the cold piercing air of a January 
morning. 
Some persons advise the docking of foals, but 
though undoubtedly the operation may be done then 
with greater ease than later on, I believe it to be a 
mistake ; I am sure it is with half-bred foals. It is 
easier when they are three years old to know how 
much or how little to take off, and many a foal that 
is docked may require a second docking at four 
years old to suit the taste of some buyer or dealer. 
If the foal turns out to be neither hunter nor hack, 
but more suitable for harness or a trooper, he cannot 
be given back the lost inches of his tail. It is wiser 
