The conclusion of the foaling period, and the completion of mating, open a peaceful and pleasant season in the pony-breeder’s year—a season during which troubles and mishaps are usually few; while the contented mares, the antics of the foals, and the young stock in their summer bloom, form a picture contrasting sharply with other scenes in the passing of the year. The breaking up of the herds in August, or thereby, and the weaning of the foals in later autumn, bring this period to a close. Weaning is a process requiring some little care and attention. The foals should be taken from their mothers not before the end of their fourth month, and preferably at least a month later; but weaning ought not to be unduly postponed, since it is important that the foals should have recovered from it before the severity of winter is felt. October is late enough for this, and late enough also to release from her nursing duties a mare which is to produce another foal in the following spring. [Illustration: 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.