MANAGEMENT OF THE WEANLINGS 
191 
“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 2V 2 years, while our stallions 
will continue to grow until 5 years of age. We always feed plenty of oats 
and very little corn to growing colts. Oats make bone and keep them 
growing, while corn makes fat, and, in time, will burn out their stomachs. 
“We let our colts run together until the December or January before they 
will be 2 years of age, and then put them in boxstalls and give plenty of 
clean straw, alfalfa, oats, bran and some chop feed wet, three times a day. 
The barn man should take them out of their stalls every morning and 
clean them well, even their hoofs. Arrange so that they have a paddock 
to run in at least every other day. 
Teach the colt to stand when out of the stall, and teach him to move. 
Let the barn man start with him, and follow, not with a whip, but with a 
cornshuck to make a shuffling noise, something new to the colt. After a 
few times he will be moving like a coacher when he hears the shuffling 
of the shuck, and will never know how he learned it. Whips in the show 
ring have lost more blue ribbons for horses than they ever won.” 
From Augstin’s experience the following remarks are presented: “Since 
we began treating our foals at birth with antitoxin streptococci and having 
them come when the mares can get on the grass, we have had practically 
no deaths. We give them an injection of this antitoxin when they are a 
few hours old and then again in about a week. Altogether too many breed¬ 
ers make the mistake of having their foals come too early in the spring. 
They are inclined to be constipated because their mothers have been on 
dry feed so long. There is also much more danger of other complications 
setting in when the dam and youngster must be in a stall for some time 
without exercise. 
“I am sure, from my own experience, that a far larger percentage of the 
foals born during the latter part of April and May live than of those that 
come in February and March.” 
As to the management of foals Augstin goes on to discuss: “Just so 
soon as the foal shows sign 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 feed 
box. 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 ani¬ 
mals, 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 barn in the daytime during the hot weather and turn them out at 
night on good pasture. Generally speaking, we never let our foals go hun¬ 
gry 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 cannot 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 storming badly. Open sheds or large boxstalls, with doors 
•pening into a large lot, are most suitable for developing colts of this 
age. In fact, we handle all our stallion colts in this way until the winter 
before they are 3 years old. Of course, if we have a colt which we wish 
to fit for the show, we keep him by himself. In the main we run out stal¬ 
lion colts together, even though we intend to show them. It is useless to 
