8 Management and Treatment of the Horse. 



were open, threw a draught tipoii the horses' 

 backs. The doors were upon the sliding principle, 

 and when closed I could put my fingers between 

 the door and the door-post, making the draught 

 enough to turn a mill. The groom told me that 

 when he went into the stable the first thing in 

 the morning the ammonia was so strong that it 

 brought tears from his eyes, and almost choked 

 him. This was called a first-class stable — what 

 a third-class one built by the same architect and 

 superintendent would be like I cannot guess. A 

 cold stable is not necessarily an unhealthy one, 

 but it is much better for the doors to be wide 

 open than to fit badly and cause great draught. 

 Captain Hunt, who used to keep a stud of horses 

 at Great Bowden, near Market Harborough, some 

 years ago, always had his stable doors wide open 

 all weathers, and I never saw horses look better 

 in the field. His horses never caught colds. 

 Paddy Marr, a well-known groom of the old 

 school, used to take his horses to the river to 

 drink every morning, and he was about the only 

 man in Melton Mowbray whose horses escaped 

 the infiuenza in 1837. Although I contend that 

 a cold stable, under proper management, need not 

 be an unhealthy one, yet I have a great horror of 

 a damp and draughty stable. How few gentlemen, 

 grooms, and architects, think anything about the 

 dampness of stables, and make no convenience for 

 washing horses, but have the horses washed in 

 the stall or box they sleep in ; then, after satu- 

 rating the bricks with water, the horse, after the 

 fatigue of a hard day's work, has to lie upon a 



