CONSTRUCTION OF STABLES. 23 



twelve to fourteen feet is sufficient for the largest stable ; and 

 the smallest ought not to be less than eight feet high. When too 

 lofty the stable is cold ; when too low, it requires large ventila- 

 tors, which create a current, not at all times safe or pleasant to 

 the horses. Professor Coleman used to recommend a very low 

 roof, about seven feet I think from the ground. I forget his 

 reason. His own stable is so low that medicine can not be 

 given to a horse in it without driving the crown of his head 

 through the ceiling. It certainly is not right to have the roof 

 so low. The height must vary from eight to fourteen feet, 

 according to the number of horses. When there is no loft 

 above, the height should be rather greater ; in summer the 

 slates- or the tiles become hot, and make the stable like an 

 oven ; and in winter when snow lies on the roof, the stable is 

 like an ice-house. The hay-loft, when over the stable, should 

 have no communication with it. 



THE FLOOR. In Scotland the floor of the stable is almost 

 universally laid either with whinstone or freestone, or partly 

 with the one and partly with the other. Very often, the gang- 

 way and about one half of the stall are paved, while the other 

 half of the stall is causewayed. In a few cases hard bricks 

 are employed, and arranged on edge ; the first expense is 

 less, but bricks, even when well selected and properly laid, 

 are not sufficiently durable, especially under heavy horses. 

 So long as they remain in order, however, they make a very 

 good floor, which always affords firm foot-hold, but I do not 

 recommend it. 



Pavement is apt to get slippery and make the horses fall 

 when rising, or when leaving the stable. I once saw a horse 

 break his thighbone in rising from a paved stall, but there 

 was no fixed partition between the stalls, and very little litter 

 on the ground, otherwise it is probable the accident would 

 not have happened. In the same stable several other horses 

 have been lamed in the same way and from the same causes. 



A Paved Floor, however, when properly grooved, is the 

 best both for gangway and stalls ; it is durable and easily 

 kept clean. To prevent the horse from slipping, it ought to 

 be furrowed by concave grooves about three inches wide and 

 one deep. At the gangway these should run across the stable, 

 and in the stall they should run parallel with the partitions. 

 Both should slope to the gutter. In some stables these grooves 

 have others running directly or obliquely across them. They 

 are rarely three inches wide in any stable ; most frequently 

 they do not exceed one inch. When narrow they require to 



