SELECTION, CARE AND MANAGEMENT 549 



part of April and May live than of those that 

 come in February and March. I find also that I am 

 more successful in getting my mares in foal by 

 breeding during the second heat period after foaling 

 than on the 9th day. This gives them a chance to 

 heal before being bred, as well as to rest somewhat 

 before entering upon another year's work. 



"Just so soon as the foal shows signs of wanting 

 to nibble grain I tie the mare up and give it a box 

 to itself. It gets all the oats and bran it will eat 

 from that time on. We sprinkle a little shelled corn 

 on the oats and bran. Our foals seem to like a little 

 corn particularly well. To this we add a little alfalfa 

 meal in the winter, but not in the summer, as the 

 molasses is likely to sour to some extent and sweet 

 feeds draw flies around the feedbox. A foal always 

 does better if fed in a clean box. Good alfalfa and 

 clover hay are the best roughages. We use these 

 feeds for all our animals, even our mature show 

 horses. We never use black-strap molasses, as it 

 always causes more or less digestive troubles. It is 

 not any trouble to get a horse fat if it is healthy and 

 has plenty of clean feeds, with good water to drink. 



"For best results one should keep the idle mares 

 that are nursing foals in the bam in the daytime 

 during the hot weather and turn them out at night 

 on good pasture. G-enerally speaking, we never let 

 our foals go hungry from the time they will eat until 

 they are well along toward maturity. We push our 

 stallion colts harder than we do the fillies in order 

 to make them salable sooner. One can not feed a 

 colt too much of the right kind of feed, if he gives 

 it plenty of exercise. We feed all our weanlings all 

 they will eat, but keep them out of doors in large 

 paddocks and pastures every day, unless it is storm- 

 ing badly. Open sheds or large boxstalls with doors 



