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. To the same end it is well to hang bridles in their stalls
so that while they are still colts they may become accustomed to the
sight of them and the sound of their clanking as well. When a colt has
learned to come to an outstretched hand you should put a boy on his
back, for the first two or three times stretched out flat on his
belly, but afterwards sitting upright. The time to do this is when
the colt is three years old, for then he has his full growth and is
beginning to develop muscles.

"There are those who say that a colt may be broken at eighteen months,
but it is better to wait until the third year. Then is the time too
to begin to feed him that mixture of grain in the milk which we call
_farrago_, for this is very good for a horse as a purgative. It
should be fed for ten days to the exclusion of all other food. On the
eleventh day and until the fourteenth you should feed barley, adding a
little to the ration every day for four days and then maintaining that
quantity for the ten days succeeding: during this period the horse
should be exercised moderately, and when in a sweat rubbed down with
oil. If it is cold a fire should be lit in the stable.

"As some horses are suitable for military service, some for the cart,
some for breeding, some for racing, and others for the carriage, it
follows that the methods of handling and looking after them all are
not the same. Thus the soldier chooses some and rears and trains them
for his particular use, and so in turn does the charioteer and the
circus rider. Nor does he who wishes a cart horse choose the same
conformation or give the same training as to a horse intended for the
saddle or the carriage: for as the one desires mettle for military
service, the other prefers a gentle disposition for use on the road.
It was to provide for this difference of use that the practice of
castrating horses was inaugurated, for horses that are altered are of
a quieter disposition: they are called geldings, as hogs in the same
state are called barrows and chi