AREA AND HEIGHT REQUIRED 219 



SUPERFICIAL AREA AND HEIGHT REQUIRED 



TuE HORSE, like all the higher animals, i-equires a constant supply of 

 pure air to renovate his blood, and yet it must not be admitted in a strong 

 current flowing directly upon him, or it will chill the surface and give 

 him cold. Artificial means of warming stables are objected to on account 

 of their costliness, and of the constant and careful supervision which they 

 demand, so that the horse is dependent upon his own heat-producing 

 powers for keeping up the temperature of the air in which he breathes. 

 Hence, it is a matter for experimental research to ascertain what number 

 of cubic feet of air can supply him with what he wants for the purifying 

 of his blood, without reducing the temperature of the stable generally, and 

 without the necessity for admitting blasts of cold air. By common consent 

 it is allowed that no stable divided into stalls should give to each horse 

 less than 800 or 1000 cubic feet, and a loose box should not contain less 

 than 1300 to 1500 cubic feet. An inexperienced person may perhaps 

 fail to discover the reason why a loose box should provide more air for its 

 inhabitant than a stall ; but those who are accustomed to use horses, will 

 see at once that the air is more or less changed in a large stable every 

 time the door is opened, which act is repeated a great many times in the 

 day, while the door of the loose box is often kept closed, with the excep- 

 tion of the hours of feeding and dressing. Much will depend upon the 

 thickness of the walls, the nature of their materials, and the exposure of 

 their outer surfaces to the weather ; for a fourteen-inch brick wall will 

 retain the heat within its enclosure much more completely than one of 

 nine inches built of the same materials, and tliis remark applies still more 

 strictly in the case of a wall built of absorbent stone, or inferior bricks. 

 If a substantially-built stable is kept properly clean, and its ventilation is 

 well arranged, my own opinion is that a comparatively limited area is 

 better for its inmates than an extravagantly large one. A " very airy " 

 stable generally means one which is so high that it cannot be kept warm, 

 and in such I have generally seen staring coats and heard coughs per- 

 petually going on. I have myself tried different stables, allowing an area 

 of 750, 850, and 950 cubical feet per horse, extending to three or four 

 stalls ; but I confess that my leaning has been rather to the lowest than 

 the highest of these numbers. The most healthy one I ever used scarcely 

 allowed so much as 750 feet per horse, and in it for ten years I scarcely 

 ever had a case of illness, irrespective of legs and feet, consequent upon 

 hard work. This space may be divided in the way most convenient, as 

 we shall hereafter see. 



With regard to the number of stalls or loose boxes which should 

 be grouped together in one apartment, there is little difference of opinion 

 now-a-da}'s among practical men, that more than from four to six horses 

 should not be allowed to stand together. The former number is the 

 better ; but sometimes there may be circumstances which will excuse the 

 latter being adopted ; as, for instance, when this number are kept, and 

 the space occupied by a partition wall is an object. Even then, however, 

 a boarded partition may be introduced, and as it will not occupy any 



