138 HORSES AXD RIDIXa. 



which a stall possesses, and some more besides, 

 whereas a stall has no advantage over a loose box in 

 any one particular, while it is inferior to it in many- 

 points. For this reason, if I were building stables I 

 should build nothing but loose boxes. 



Now supposing they were all loose boxes, there 

 are two ways of constructing them. One is for each 

 box to open into a passage or gangway inside the 

 stable, and the other is for each box to open directly 

 into the open air. Of these two plans I consider the 

 latter is very much the most to be preferred. When 

 the box opens direct into the outward air, as soon as 

 the horse which occupies it goes out, tbe door can be 

 set wide open, and remain open until he comes back. 

 There are two advantages in this : first, the box gets 

 thoroughly sweetened during the horse's absence, 

 and secondly, when he comes back and is put into it 

 again, there is no perceptible change of the tempera- 

 ture of the air he is breathing. 



Now in the other case, unless all the horses in 

 that stable are out at the same time, the door cannot 

 be left open on account of the horses remaining in 

 it. The consequence is, that when the horse that 

 has been out hunting or elsewhere comes home, he 

 goes suddenly out of the cold air that he has been 

 breathing all day, into a temperature very many 

 degrees warmer, and close by comparison. The con- 

 sequence is that the action of his heart is quickened, 

 and his lungs and throat irritated, to the injury of 



