“Horses should be pastured whenever possible in meadows of grass, and in the stable and stall they are fed on hay.

“When a mare has foaled she should be fed on barley and watered twice a day.

“In the matter of breeding, the period of service is from the vernal equinox to the solstice so that the foal may come at a suitable season, for they are supposed to be born on the tenth day of the twelfth month after the mare was stinted.  Those which are born after the time are usually defective and unfit for use.  When the season has come the stallion should be admitted to the mare twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, under the direction of the origa (so the studgroom is called), for a mare held in hand is stinted more quickly, nor does the stallion waste his seed by excess of ardor.  When a mare is stinted she makes it known by defending herself.  If the stallion shows an aversion for a mare, her parts should be smeared when she is in heat with the marrow of a shrimp macerated in water to the consistency of honey, and the stallion allowed to smell of it.

“Although it may seem incredible, what I am about to relate is true and should be remembered.  Once upon a time a studgroom tried to make a stallion cover his mother, but could never get him to come near her:  so one day the groom muffled the stallion’s head and put him to his mother successfully:  but when the bandage was removed and the stallion saw what he had done, he fell upon the groom and killed him with his teeth.

“When the mares have been stinted it must be seen to that they are worked only in moderation and are kept out of cold places, because cold is of the greatest prejudice to a mare in that condition.  For this reason the floor of their stable should be kept dry and the windows and doors should be kept shut:  and furthermore the mares should be separated one from another by long poles fastened back from the manger so that they may not fight.

“Mares in foal should neither be over-fed nor starved.

“There are some who breed their mares only every other year and claim they get better colts, on the same principle that as corn land is exhausted by continuous cropping, so is a mare which is bred every year.[141]

“The foal should be led out to pasture with its dam on the tenth day after it is born, so to avoid burning its tender hoofs by standing on manure in the stable.  When five months old a colt should be fed, whenever he is brought into the stable, a ration of barley meal whole with its bran, or any other product of the earth which he will eat with appetite.  When they are a year old they may be fed barley in the grain mixed with bran, and this should be kept up as long as they suckle, for they should not be weaned until they have completed the second year.  From time to time while they are still with their dams they should be handled so that they may not be wild after they are separated.