526 Brccdiiif/ and Manmjement of Horses on a Farm 
brought to them, I would warn them against putting any of their 
mares to these brutes. Few people can mistake the breed when 
they have once noticed it, and lest they should never have met with 
it, a Flemish stallion may be recognized by being mare-headed — ■ 
heavy to excess in the neck and crest — flat-sided, and weak in the 
loins, quarters, and legs. With all these defects, or most of them, 
his long mane, his bulk (for he is prone to fatten), and his tout 
ensemble, coupled with a few flaunting ribbons about the head, and 
a gay bridle, do not fail to entrap the man who is unable to form 
a correct opinion of his principal points — the only true method of 
judging of a horse. \Ve possess better cart- stallions than any 
other nation, but did we require a cross, I should say, from what 
I have seen, that the light Norman cart-stallion is an animal 
greatly to be preferred to the ponderous, inactive specimens that 
I have seen of the Flemish breed. 
Now for the consideration of the management, feeding, and 
general treatment of horses on a farm. 
If the mare from which a foal is bred be put to horse again a few 
weeks after foaling, she should not be allowed to suckle longer than 
five months. Provided she have conceived, she will then be about 
four months gone with foal, and as at that period the foetus will 
probably have quickened, if she still continue to suckle her colt 
her frame will have to afford nourishment to herself, the foal at her 
foot, and the animal of which she is pregnant. The drain thus 
caused to the system is not only too great for the mare herself, but 
every drop of milk that her foal sucks from her will deprive the 
foetus of a certain degree of nourishment. Her milk should there- 
fore be dried op, by removing her foal and giving her a gentle 
dose of physic once or twice (such as half a pint of cold-drawn 
linseed oil and a couple of bran mashes), in order that those efforts 
of nature heretofore directed to the supply of the lacteal vessels 
may be more completely concentrated upon the development of 
the foetus. 
The young colt or filly, when first taken from the dam, should, 
if possible, be turned out with one or two other young horses, in or- 
der that it may the sooner forget its loss. A large j)iece of pasture, 
where such is to be had, should be selected for it, and as the au- 
tumn will be approaching, the grasses will neither be so succulent 
nor so luxuriant as to afford too abundant feed without the trouble 
ol seeking for it. Thus a certain degree of exercise must be taken 
by the young animal while seeking its food, and exercise is the foun- 
tain of health and vigour. Few things, indeed, arc more detri- 
mental to horses, cither young or old, but particularly to the former, 
than deep pastures that contain a superabundance of grass. Here 
the horse, if greedy, fills his stomach to repletion without the 
slightest exertion, and then lies down to recover from the effects 
