544 A HISTORY OF THE PERCHEHON HORSE 



or two weeks, rebreeding her on the 9th day if 

 possible. Then leave the baby in a boxstall, with 

 other foals or alone. Bring the mother in from the 

 field once between morning and noon for her baby 

 to nurse. Never allow the mare to get too hot or 

 the foal to nurse when the mare is hot. 



"When the foal is thirty days old put some oats 

 where it can nibble at them; increase the amount 

 as it cleans them up, until oats may be left in the box 

 for the foal to eat any time. As time goes on 

 and the baby is left at the stable, try turning it 

 out in a small pasture with a few calves or foals 

 where it can eat grass and get plenty of exercise. 

 When the foal is two months old it will not be neces- 

 sary to let it nurse between regular meal times, but 

 you will have a better colt if you do. After the 

 foals are six months old and weaned turn them 

 on alfalfa, pasture, if possible, and feed them grain 

 twice each day. When the pasture is killed by frost 

 or is too closely cropped, take them to their winter 

 quarters, preferably a place where they can have 

 plenty of exercise all day and a shed to shelter them 

 from storms at night. Do not start to put them in 

 the closed bam or shed; let them run in and out at 

 any time; have plenty of clean alfalfa where they 

 can run to it, and feed grain twice each day. 



' ' One reason that the colts in this country do not 

 mature so quickly as imported stock is that we are 

 too stingy with our feed. However, most of the 

 imported stallions have their growth at two and 

 one-half years, while our stallions will continue to 

 grow until five years of age. We always feed plenty 

 of oats and very little com to growing colts. Oats 

 make bone and keep them growing, while com makes 

 fat and in time will bum out their stomachs. 



"We let our colts run together until the December 



