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CARE AND HOUSING OF MARES AND FOALS. Miss Daingerficld, Who Designed Barn at the Wickliffo Stud, Gives Pointers to Horsemen. The following interesting and timely article, written by Miss Daingerficld on the proper care and housing of mares and foals, based on years of practical experience, as to how the best results may be obtained, should be given the careful consideration of cery man who owns a valuable broodmare. The foaling barn recently built at the Wi-kliffe Mai, designed by Miss Daingerficld, is the last word iu a structure of this kind. In the great and increasing interest that many people, especially the wealthy eastern men. feel for the thoroughbred horse and all that he repre seats, it may not he ill timed to ask a thoughtful consideration f,,r the housing of these animals and he suitable equipment for their development. For it is to us of tic inn,. ;r:,ss that as a rule this pleasant task is assigned of caring for the studs. The thoroughbred is a Kentuckian for his own best interest. The grass and limestone are so admirably suited to his greatest development thai sooner or later, the breeder, who realty wants to see his colors i:i front, breeds his horses in Kentucky. Yet few of the men. who actually own the most valuable horses, are in a position to see them often enough to understand the tremendous expense that the care and housing represents. Wealthy eastern men give 0,000 for a mare and put her in a 1917.sh00 stable without any of the essential comforts for her safety and that of her foal and call it luck when she dies or loses her colt year after year — or when her foal is crippled and useless from rheumatism — or even when left to incompetent can taken and poor equipment, they fail to get their marcs in foal, they blame the stallion or the Fates and never recognize tiie fact that they alone are responsible. And it is only ignorance they mean to do all that is necessary — but they lack education on practical lines. One Colt Will Pay for Construction of Barn. There are many men today buying in England valuable marcs and not realizing that the upkeep ■ if a good horse is like !my COod thing — it costs money, bat it is worth the price. One colt will pay for a properly to— ti acted foaling bam— and the price of one mare will often build it. Yet many of the richest men of our country have their most valuable marcs scattered hither and yon — io.iiing in twelve or sixteen-foot stalls with no special wathman. no watchmans room witli ever ready heat and water aa telephone at hand for immediate connection with the doctors -and all b cause they do not know how much it should cost to keep a good horse. In the long run the beat is the cheapest way to keep horses — and. of course, the beat Way is to own a farm and arrange it suitably for your own requirements. Next best is to board your horai s with ■ man who already has the proper equipment and asks the highest rat — thus making it possible to give the best care. As things are now. the man who board* heroes cheap boards them badly. A foaling mare should have a warm, high, smooth ceiled box stall, not less than eighteen feet square -twenty is better — with windows through which the ever present watchman can see without disturbing her. Fvcry foaling barn necessarily has ana or more rooms with coal stove, made safe by the quality and size of chimney and building, abundant hot aratcr always ready, a medicine cheat witli all Bnt aids constantly replenished and a night and day force, ready anil watchful, abundant good straw and hay as well as several kinds, suitable for mares of different ages anil requirements: water at hand and in abundance. These stables shonhl be surrounded by small paddocks for the mares and young foils until their strength is sufficient for more exercise and they can be taken to Other stables. Long Broad Hall for Exercising Horses. The most satisfactory foaling barn seems to me built with four boxes 0:1 each side of a wid • hall, with mens rooms across the end that all work, renewing bedding, etc.. may be done in bad weather without expnaare to the outside — and fewer men can safely watch as many as eight mares at. a time. a pnur broad hall with packed clay floors gives a little exercise to the day or so ol I colt when it is impossible to turn him out in r.iin or snow, and in case of sickness, the attendants may change the bedding, etc.. without undue exposure. F.vory stall in any Stable should have an outside as well as an inside door and abundant light and entiIaiion. It is unwise to keep banes in close, hat quartern, but the space and dryness are e;sen-thd to health, and as our race horses are farced for two and three-year-old form, the forcing should 1*-gin the day they are born and even through their mothers special care before that. It is a roya! sport and he who plays should not only be ready but willing to pay as benefits the game. Cntil a colt goes to tin- track there is not one boars eaideaaneai of attendant or one mistake in feeding or proper exercise or watchfulness that may not cost at least a race — perhaps the success of the stable. Few people can realize how many stakes are lost for a few- feet of timber to amko a stall comfortably bug-, or a few rente worth of oats extra each feci!, or perhaps just one man too few to care for the royal infanta upon whoso courage success of failure hang,. All stables should be so constructed that young animals can see each other, all bedding be so deep that to lie down Mill to actually rest every masele, ev ry feed means abundance of sustenance for tin- growing animal— every hour morns the careful attendance upon his best development, his legs, his feat, his coat be the daily, hourly interest of his groom, ami all these tilings cost money — but to dance one must pay the pip •!•. A large per cent of the good banes are owned by tla- wealthy cistern men. It is they who need to be aroused to the greater interest iu breeding good horses in proper environment, one does not buy diamonds and keep them in a coal scuttle why give approx im atetr as much for a horse and keep him in a woodshed. America has waked up to the purchase price its time to look optu-iyed at the coat of a horses living. There is no sport that can begin to teach the delights of a .vinn.eg stable- 110 interest that grows with knowledge as does that of the development of the horse, and no horse that reaches his beat unless properly cared for.
