STABLE MANAGEMENT 245 



leather as pillar-reins because they wear longer; but if 

 a restless horse is fastened to chain pillar-reins he 

 rattles them, makes himself more restless, and dis- 

 turbs the other horses. They may answer very well 

 in cavalry stables, but in hunting stables there should 

 be as little noise as possible. I have seen in some 

 modern stables the white eight-plaited cord pillar- 

 reins, but they require constant pipe-claying, and 

 then do not look as smart and sportsmanlike as the 

 leather ones. Military men seem to prefer them, so 

 I suppose there is some subtle influence in pipe-clay. 

 In olden days the mangers were invariably made 

 of wood, for enamelled iron had not been invented. 

 Thus, in the diaries of old Masters of Hounds we 

 often come across the complaint that such a horse 

 was a crib biter. There can be no doubt but that 

 wooden mangers are apt to make horses crib biters. 

 Besides, they are more difficult to keep clean than 

 those made of enamelled iron. In either case they 

 should be constantly scrubbed with salt and water, 

 for the manger is to the horse what the plate is to 

 the human being. In olden days it was the custom 

 to place the rack above the horse, so that he had to 

 stretch his neck like a giraffe in order to reach his 

 food. Now the rack is placed as close to the manger 

 as possible, so as to enable the horse to eat his food 

 in a comfortable position. But the most important 

 modern improvement that we can boast of is the 

 enamelled basin or water trough, which should be 

 fixed in every stall or loose box, so that the horse 



