538 A HISTORY OF THE PERCHEEON HORSE 



work. At three they are bred and put to work for 

 the season. Early work develops a large feeding 

 capacity, as well as powerful frame and muscle. It 

 accustoms the fillies to being handled, and so they 

 behave well when maternal duties come upon them. 

 Some of our best old brood mares did not produce 

 their first foals until five years old. 



"After the foals are weaned in October, and the 

 milkflow is dried up, the mares are turned on good 

 pasture, and fed 5 or 6 ears of com and 3 quarts of 

 oats apiece twice a day for sixty days, to build up 

 their flesh in good shape for the winter. After that 

 they get no grain until spring. During the winter 

 they run on bluegrass pasture and second-crop tim- 

 othy in the meadows, but are not allowed in stalk- 

 fields. We are also careful to keep them out of oat 

 stubblefields late in the fall, for frosted green oats 

 cause abortion. The mares are not fed straw either. 

 Special care is exercised to keep them away from rye 

 straw, as a very little rj^e ergot is sufficient to cause 

 abortion. Besides the grass from which they often 

 paw the snow, the mares have free access to stacks 

 of timothy hay, with just a sprinkling of clover in it. 

 Sometimes they are fed a little cane, but never any 

 corn-fodder. Fodder with the ears on is a dangerous 

 feed for a baind of mares, because at some time one 

 of the mares is almost sure to get too much corn and 

 lose her foal as a result. 



"The brood mares have no shelter in winter, other 

 than the haystacks for a windbreak. They will crowd 

 in quite closely and quietly around the stacks during 

 a storm. When we have tried turning them to the 

 sheds they at once begin to fight for a monopoly 

 of the shelter. In that case a big shed only protects 

 the 'boss' mare anyway, and there is the danger be- 

 sides of injury from kicking. The mares that run out 



