290 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



be a rack placed at a medium height, and well de- 

 fended by bars or slats. 



By this time, however, I assume that the reader 

 and myself have put our heads over the first door, 

 and are looking inside the stalls. There are five 

 in this row, and the solid partitions between them 

 run up to a height of less than a foot beyond the 

 withers of an ordinary sized horse. At that point 

 the partition is continued by three horizontal rails, to 

 prevent neighbors from biting each other. An iron 

 network would be better, perhaps, but 1 used a dis- 

 carded lightning rod which happened to be on hand. 

 Thus, a clear space over all the stalls is obtained for 

 light and air, and more especially for social purposes. 

 A horse should always be able to see his neighbor; 

 and if there is but one loose box in a stable, it should 

 be contiguous to the straight stalls. A horse shut up 

 in a box stall, made, as it sometimes is, with a solid 

 door and but one small window, is forlorn and un- 

 happy. In some stables the partitions between the 

 loose boxes are composed entirely of iron network, — 

 a good arrangement unless it should render the stalls 

 draughty. 



The reader will observe that my loose boxes face 

 the south, that there is a window in each, and that 

 the door is cut in two, having an upper and a lower 

 part. Thus, the temperature can be regulated in a 

 considerable degree. Good dimensions for a loose box 

 to contain a horse of medium size are twelve feet by 

 twelve, but a box ten feet by ten, or perhaps even 

 smaller, would be better than a straight stall. Mr. 

 G-. Tattersall states the proper size of a hunter's box 

 as twenty-two feet long and thirteen feet wide. In 



