VENTILATION OF STABLES 361 



VENTILATION OF STABLES 



Adequate stable ventilation is nowadays recognized as essential for the 

 maintenance of good health in the stud. No horse can be tlioroughly 

 well or fit, or in condition to do hard work or to resist disease, that is 

 condemned to inhale the impure air of a badly-ventilated stable. When 

 the inspired air is charged with ec^uine exhalations, oxidation of the 

 blood is lessened, elimination of impurities from the body is retarded, 

 the system becomes loaded with waste products, and the vital force is 

 markedly lowered. The visible results are that horses so housed become 

 languid, easily fatigued, and show a marked tendency to succumb when 

 attacked by any serious disease. 



If horses are to be kejjt in good health the air they breathe must 

 be pure, hence the necessity for ventilation, or, in other words, the 

 extraction of impure air and the introduction of fresh air. This exchange 

 requires to be done witliout unduly lowering the temperature or creating 

 draughts, and it should be constant and regular. With the view of 

 best securing this, many plans have been tried, but their efficacy depends 

 on many extraneous circumstances, such as, e.g., the season of the year, 

 the position of the stable, its size, &c. The inlets and outlets require 

 to be much greater in hot than in cold weather, and in confined, closely- 

 inhabited town positions than in thinly-populated exposed country dis- 

 tricts. Eegulation of temperature and prevention of draughts are more 

 easily secured in small than large stables; and as the spread of infectious 

 and contageous diseases takes place more readily in stables where large 

 numbers of animals are kept, the majority of horse-owners are beginning 

 to recognize the advantages of small over large stables. The entrance 

 of fresh air is usually arranged for by means of gratings, and by tubes 

 in the walls, by the doors, and by sjiecially-constructed windows. The 

 exits generally consist of extraction -shafts, patent cowls, gratings, win- 

 dows, and louvred arrangements. But whatever plan of inlet and outlet is 

 employed the former should be fairly low down and so placed as to avoid 

 projecting draughts on any of the horses, and the latter should be high up 

 in the building. The old principle of low inlet and high outlet is correct, 

 and, when followed, a more thorough exchange of air is secured than when 

 both inlet and outlet are placed on nearly the same level, for in the latter 

 case the lower stratum of air surrounding the horses remains practically 

 unchanged. 



Likewise, whatever plan of exit and entrance is used, there should 

 always be provision for regulating the size of the ventilators according to 



