VIII 
MANAGEMENT OF THE WEANLINGS 
1. Weaning and Management 
Johnstone 5 advocates the weaning of colts at the age of five months. 
The colts are separated from the dam once and for all, at which time 
the dam is fed with a reduced grain ration and her milk is drawn off 
three or four times the first day and less often as time advances until no 
more milk could be extracted. The mare is worked as usual, or if she is 
not worked the grain is eliminated altogether and instead hay only is 
to be supplied her and when dry then light grain feeding is resumed 
again. As to the management of the weanlings the same authority writes: 
“Weanlings should have snug quarters during their first winter. Put them 
preferably two in a boxstall and feed them good oats and bran—one-fifth 
bran by weight—all they will clean up nicely and come hungry to their 
next meal. Peed them the choicest hay on the place, always free from 
dust and mold, and feed them often—a little at a time. No one can rear 
young horses properly without grain—winter and summer they should 
have good grain feeding . . . Keep their feet level and their toes 
short. 
“In pasture yearlings and two-year-olds should have grain according 
to the growth of the grass and the season. Keep them growing and fat, 
and always see well to their feet. Give them shelter into which they 
may escape from the attacks of the awful flies . . . Do not close 
young horses in a field with cattle, sheep and swine, if it can be avoided. 
They do best by themselves or with cattle—always, poorly with with 
sheep and pigs. House them early in winter and always keep them 
growing and fat. 
“Stallions will, of course, have to be taken up and kept by themselves 
the summer after they are a year old. Many a foal has been got by a 
yearling. Regarding the best time to castrate colts men always have 
differed and always will. As a rule it is best to order their castration 
when they are about a year old. If one is undeveloped about the head 
and neck he may be allowed to run entire for six months or a year longer. 
“Regarding the growth of horses, it may be said that roughly speaking 
a colt which is properly reared will make rather more than half his 
growth in his first year . . . The draft-bred that does not weigh 1200 
lbs. or over the day he is twelve months old will have a slim chance to 
fill a drafter’s bill. The best plan is to give them always what grain 
they will clean up nicely and let it go at that. It is bad at any time to 
let colts get thin. It is worst of all to let them lose the flesh that was 
born on them. It is very nearly as bad to let them get thin after wean¬ 
ing. Loss sustained at such times will never be regained.” 
According to Carlson, 6 “Weaning the foal can be done with no loss of 
growth. Simply dry the mare up by letting the foal suckle less often 
all the time. I never milk a mare in weaning a foal. The mare will 
cease to secrete milk after a time, if the foal be permitted to suck but 
twice a day for a few days, then once only until the mare is sufficiently 
dry to have the foal taken away from her. During the weaning process 
the foal can be tied in a stall at the side of the mare at night. By this 
way of weaning the foal is more contented, and does much better than 
if taken away from the mare at once. After the weaning process has 
passed, the foal should never want for either pure water or wholesome 
