BUILDING CONSTRUCTION 145 



Wood, in one form or another, is occasionally met with forming 

 in part the flooring of an animal-house. It is scarcely necessary 

 to say that wood is quite unsuitable for this purpose. Even hard- 

 wood blocks absorb water and so also do creosoted railway sleepers. 



CONSTRUCTION OF STABLES FOR HORSES. 



The planning and fitting of a stable naturally depend upon the 

 number and class of horses to be housed, but the hygienic require- 

 ments remain the same. Simplicity should be a ruling factor in 

 construction. Plainness of internal fittings does not necessarily 

 mean ugliness, neither does a high degree of decoration always 

 imply beauty, and it certainly seldom conduces to hygiene. 



Where accommodation is to be found for only a few horses, 

 the stalls are most convenient if placed in a single row with the 

 horses' heads turned toward the wall. For a large number of 

 animals a double stable with two rows of stalls is more convenient 

 and less costly to build. The horses should be placed facing the 

 walls with a passage running down the centre of the building between 

 them. The stalls should not be constructed so that the animals 

 face each other, nor should they be placed in transverse rows across 

 the building. No more than two rows should be allowed under one 

 roof. The requisite air-space per head is a minimum of 1100 cubic 

 feet for heavy horses and 550 cubic feet for animals of medium 

 size. Twice or three times this space may be given with advantage 

 (see page 90). 



Stalls. For cows the superficial area of a stall has to be reduced 

 as much as possible for reasons which are explained on page 167. 

 With horses no such restriction of space is necessary, and conse- 

 quently stalls can and should be built sufficiently large to 

 allow freedom of movement coupled with safety from accidents. 

 Obviously, a stall built for a pony will not be suitable for a Shire 

 horse, and some consideration should be given to the type of animal 

 the stall is expected to hold. Fineness in allotment of space is 

 neither necessary nor desirable, as is the case with cows, and it is 

 better to provide stalls of a large size, since they can accommodate 

 small horses while the small size is useless for big ones. The object 

 of providing separate stalls for each individual horse is that each 

 animal may rest and feed in security and comfort, and free from the 

 annoying attentions of his neighbour. The length of a stall from 

 the facing wall to the heel-post of the stall partition should be 13 

 feet for large horses of the Shire type and 10 feet for the average 

 horse of the light draught type. Stalls are almost invariably made 

 10 



