in zoology, a general name for the young of the horse-kind: the male being likewise, for distinction's sake, called a horse-colt; the female, a filly.

After the colts have been foaled, you may suffer them to run with the mare till about Michaelmas, Dictionary sooner or later, according as the cold weather comes in; then they must be weaned; though some persons are for having them weaned after Martinmas, or the middle of November. The author of the Complete Horseman is of opinion, that the reason why most foals advance so slowly, and are not capable of service till they are six or seven years old, is because they have not fucked long enough; whereas, if they had fucked the whole winter over, they would be as good at four or five years old as they are now at eight.

They ought now to be kept in a convenient house, with a low rack and manger for their hay and oats, which must be sweet and good; with a little wheaten bran mixed with the oats to cause them to drink, and to keep their bodies open. But, since there are some who allege that oats make foals become blind, or their teeth crooked; the same author is of opinion, that oats will wear their teeth, and make them the sooner to change, and also to raze; therefore he judges it to be the best way to break them in a mill, because that by endeavouring with their jaws to bruise and chew them, they stretch and swell their eye and nether-jaw veins, which do attract the blood and humours that they fall down upon the eyes, and frequently occasion the loss of them; so that it is not the heating quality of the oats, but the difficulty in chewing, that is the cause of their blindness.

Further, colts thus fed with grain do not grow thickish upon their legs, but grow broader and better knit than if they had eaten nothing but hay and bran, and will endure fatigue the better. But above all, they must be kept from wet and cold, which are hurtful to them, nothing being more tender than they are. For proof of this, take a Spanish stallion, and let him cover two mares, which for age, beauty, and comeliness may admit of no difference between them; and if they produce both horse-colts, or both fillies, which is one and the same thing, let one run abroad, and the other be housed every winter, kept warm, and ordinarily attended; and that colt that has been kept abroad shall have large fleshy shoulders, flabby and gouty legs, weak patterns, and ill hoofs; and shall be a dull heavy jade, in comparison to the other which is housed, and orderly kept; and which will have a fine forehead, be fine shaped, and have good legs and hoofs, and be of good strength and spirit: by which you may know, that to have the finest stallion, and the most beautiful mare, is nothing if they are spoiled in the breeding up. It is worth observation, that some foals, under six months old, though their dams yield plenty of milk, yet decay daily, and have a cough, proceeding from certain pellicles or skins that breed in their stomachs, which obstruct their breathing, and at last destroy them entirely. To remedy this malady, take the bag wherein the colt was foaled, dry it, and give him as much of it in milk as you can take up with three fingers; but if you have not preserved the bag, procure the lungs of a young fox, and use it instead of the aforeaid powder.

It will be proper to let the colts play an hour or two in some court-yard, &c. when it is fair weather, provided you put them up again carefully, and see that they take no harm. When the winter is spent, turn them into some dry ground, where the grass is short and sweet, and where there is good water, that they may drink at pleasure: for it is not necessary that a colt should fill his belly immediately, like a horse that labours hard. The next winter you may take them into the house, and use them just as you do your other horses; but let not your horse-colts and fillies be kept together after the first year. This method may be observed every summer and winter till you break them, which you may do after they have been three years old; and it will be a very easy thing, if you observe the aforeaid method of housing them: for ordering them the second year as you do your other horses, they will be so tame and gentle, that you need not fear their leaping, plunging, kicking, or the like; for they will take the saddle quietly. As for all those ridiculous methods of beating and cowing them, they are in effect spoiling them, whatever they call it, in ploughed fields, deep ways, or the like; instead of which, let the rider strive to win them by gentle usage, never correcting them but when it is necessary, and then with judgment and moderation. You will not need a cavesson of cord, which is a head strain, nor a pad of straw; but only a common saddle, and a common cavesson on his nose, such as other horses are ridden with; but it ought to be well lined with double leather; and if you please you may put on his mouth a watering bit, but without reins, only the head-stall, and this but for a few days; and then put on such a bit as he should be always ridden with; and be sure not to use spurs for some time after backing. Take notice, that as yearlings must be kept abroad together, so those of two years old together; the like for those of three yearlings: which ordering is most agreeable to them.

In order to make him endure the saddle the better, the way to make it familiar to him will be by clapping the saddle with your hand as it stands upon his back, by striking it, and swaying upon it, dangling the stirrups by his sides, rubbing them against his sides, and making much of them, and bringing him to be familiar with all things about him; as straining the crupper, fastening and loosening the girths, and taking up and letting out the stirrups. Then as to the motion of him, when he will trot with the saddle obediently, you may wash a trench of a full mouth, and put the same into his mouth, throwing the reins over the forepart of the saddle, so that he may have a full feeling of it; then put on a martingale, buckled at such a length that he may but just feel it when he jerks up his head; then take a broad piece of leather, and put it about his neck, and make the ends of it fall by plaiting of it, or some other way, at the withers, and the middle part before his withers, about two handfuls below the thropple, betwixt the leather and his neck; let the martingale pass so, that when at any time he offers to duck, or throw down his head, the cavesson being placed upon the tender gristle of his nose, may correct and punish him; which will make him bring his head to, and form him to an absolute rein: trot him abroad, and if you find the reins or martingale grow slack, straighten them, for when there is no feeling there is no virtue.

Colt-Evil, among farriers. See Farriery, § xxviii. 4.

Colt-Taming, is the breaking of a colt so as to endure a rider. Colts are most easily broke at three or four years of age; but he who will have patience to see his horse at full five, will have him much more free of diffeases and infirmities than if he were broke sooner.

Preparatory to their breaking for the saddle, they should be used to familiar actions, as rubbing, clawing, haltering, leading to water, taking up their feet, knocking their hoofs, &c. In order to bridle and saddle a colt, when he is made a little gentle, take a sweet watering trench, washed and anointed with honey and salt, which put into his mouth, and so place it that it may hang about his tuft; then offer him the saddle, but take care not to fright him with it. Suffer him to smell at it, to be rubbed with it, and then to feel it; after that, fix it and gird it fast; and make that motion the most familiar to him to which he seems most averse. Being thus saddled and bridled, lead him out to water and bring him in again: when he has stood reined upon the trench an hour or more, take off the bridle and saddle, and let him go to his meat till the evening, and then lead him out as before.