FOALS IN SUMMER.
The mares should be relieved, twice or oftener, of any severe pressure of milk after the foals are taken away, and be kept on poor grass for a day or two. The foals should be shut in until their first agitation is over, and be taught to feed from the trough. Any which may have been weaned earlier than is quite desirable are easily taught to drink separated cow’s milk with some sugar added—the best of all substitutes for mare’s milk. For the rest, there is no better food than bruised oats and bran, at first given as a mash and afterwards dry, with the addition of a small allowance of linseed meal, molassine meal, or molascuit. This feeding, with good hay and access to rough grazing, should be continued throughout winter. During this first winter liberal feeding is desirable; and adequate shelter should be given in the form of sheds or open loose-boxes, not to keep the foals warm, but merely to protect them from rough weather and to secure for them a dry lair in the long winter nights.
Older ponies need no such provision as this, though they are much the better of some such shelter as can be obtained from trees, dykes, good hedges, or steep banks. They should have ample grazing in fields left rough for the purpose, and should be supplied with hay when snow is on the ground, and at times when the winter grass proves insufficient for their needs. It ought to be kept in mind that stormy and wet weather are much more trying to them than hard frost or even snow, from both of which they seem to suffer little. Prolonged beating rain and damp ground to lie on tax their energies severely; and the wet and innutritious grass requires to be supplemented by dry food of some kind. In spring the rough pasture, which often seems to have been wasted in winter, repays its cost, for under its tufts fresh blades of grass spring early; and the ponies will be found eating old and new together, and showing the effect of the new growth in the slackening of their winter coats, which begin to fall off in large masses.
The period of weaning affords an opportunity of examining and treating the feet of mares and foals. The former usually require nothing but the shortening of the toes, and perhaps some paring of the hoof wall, with the removal of any inequalities of wear that present themselves. The foal’s feet, however, often require a good deal of attention, specially in order to deal with cavities which are apt to be formed between the sole and wall of the hoof. These cracks or cavities should be freely opened up with the drawing-knife, explored and cleaned to the bottom, sometimes to a depth of over half an inch, and carefully packed with tow and tar. A similar examination should be made of all young ponies’ feet twice a-year, and the teeth of aged ponies should also be carefully inspected.
An essential part of good herd management is the breaking of the ponies. No pony should remain unbroken; for, apart from every other reason, there is no means, other than breaking, for securing that combination of confidence and submission which every domestic animal should have. Every owner must have had experience of the inconvenience of having animals which cannot be handled without danger to themselves and their attendants, because they have never learned to yield to control, or to trust the ability and good intentions of man. With such animals ordinary management is difficult; and the treatment of illness, when it occurs, is hopelessly complicated.
But in addition to this sufficient practical reason, there is the further fact that without breaking there is no means of discovering whether an animal is or is not free from vice and ill-temper that make it undesirable as a sire or dam. It is unfortunately impossible to work all the Shetland ponies required to be bred from, although the ill effects of this are mitigated by the almost unvarying docility of the breed; but it is at all events desirable that the breeding stock should be tested for temper at some stage of their development.
Breaking is usually no difficult matter. A couple of lessons in leading, three in reins, and three in the shafts, with probably one severe conflict of wills in the whole process, will generally break a Shetland pony. A pony so broken is not of course a finished child’s mount. Its mouth and manners are still to make; and they ought not to be neglected, for both can be perfect; and the pony’s mouth particularly is naturally light and pleasant, although too often ruined by neglect and bad handling. All this should be carefully seen to when ponies are to be sent out to work; but for the purposes of herd management, the breaking just described is all that is needed.
Breaking is followed, in the case of show ponies, by preparation for show. The pony must learn to stand, walk, trot, and turn under such discipline as to present itself favourably to the judge. There is all the difference in the world between a pony showing his paces on a loose rein and going straight, true, and close, and one which must be held on a tight rein so that his head is turned round, his fore-feet almost forced to dish, and his hocks thrown out. The difference is sometimes one of temperament,—more often it is one of education. Training cannot turn a bad pony into a good one; but bad training may easily prevent the best of judges from seeing a good pony; and the fault is not with the judge but with the exhibitor.
The education of the show pony is a matter of time and patience—chiefly of endless patience. Some grooms have a genius for it, and those who have not must secure the result by greater labour; but in any case, careful practice and regular and sufficient exercise are the chief means by which the showyard results are obtained. As in every breed, preparation for show tends to be overdone. Over-fattening, as has already been said, is the most prevalent fault; but the employment of bearing-reins is sometimes carried far beyond the point required for that effective control which is the only justification for tackle; and a prudent judge will never part from his work till he has seen the ponies without their trappings, and made sure that his selected winners can hold up their heads without the aid of straps. A more difficult problem lies in the tendency to the use of heavy shoes—a practice imported from the hackney stables to induce high action of the most useless and unsightly kind. A time may come when weights of shoes will have to be limited by rule; but it is to be hoped, rather, that firm and wise judging may convince exhibitors that true, sure, and clean action does not consist in the pounding motions produced by heavy shoeing. Good conditioning, development of muscle by exercise, and careful education are the legitimate preparation for show: everything else is a more or less successful attempt to deceive.
The diseases of the Shetland pony are comparatively few; but one or two are apt to occur even in well-managed herds.