540 A HISTORY OF THE PERCHEEON HORSE 



foaling, some corn is fed to the mare, and the amount 

 is increased to a heavy feed a couple of weeks later. 



' ' The earliest foals are taught to eat at four weeks 

 old by putting a little bran, whole oats, shelled com 

 and alfalfa-molasses meal in a litte feedbox just 

 out of reach of the mares. In the pasture a feed 

 trough is kept in a pen, with a creep provided, so 

 that foals can go in but the mares cannot. After the 

 first foals learn to eat, they are fed twice a day in 

 this trough, and the later foals learn to eat by imita- 

 tion. Sometimes they begin at two weeks old. They 

 are given all the grain they will eat twice a day, and, 

 after they get well accustomed to eating, the feed is 

 mainly oats. There is no danger of overloading 

 them with fat or injuring the joints when they are 

 running out day and night and get plenty of exercise. 



"All the foals that are as much as four months old 

 are weaned about Oct. 1. To do this each mare is 

 tied at the feed trough in a long shed and her foal is 

 haltered and tied alongside with a rope it cannot 

 break. Of course, it pulls and tugs at it for a while, 

 but no damage is done. The mare is right there and 

 the youngster soon settles down to good behavior. 

 As the foals are all thoroughly accustomed to dry 

 feed, they do not ™iss the milk much, but go right on 

 eating and growing. The mares are fed timothy 

 hay alone and milked dry twice a day for a few days. 

 It helps if one greases the udders with warm lard. 

 After the milk is dried up the mares are turned out 

 on pasture and fed grain in preparation for winter. 

 The weanlings are given the open shed for shelter 

 and run on pasture for sixty days, with grain. They 

 are likely to get wormy at this time and rock salt 

 is a useful preventive. 



"Beginning in December the colts are put in box- 

 stalls, two or three together, at night, and turned 



