8 THE COMPLETE HORSEMAN 



able to hunt in a season. It has been stated 

 above that stables should be open to the air on 

 every side. It should not be necessary to insist 

 that stables and coach houses built on the four 

 sides of a square, with the stable yard confined 

 by them, are not open to the air on every side. 

 Some of the best stables I know are built on this 

 plan, and it would have been impossible to pro- 

 vide the accommodation required on any other. 

 But then the stable yards in these cases are very 

 large ones and many of the evils of having the 

 stables facing into a confined space are obviated 

 by this fact. 



The size of the stalls is an important considera- 

 tion. General Sir F. Fitzwygram gives the 

 length of the stall as lo ft. or by preference lo ft. 

 6 in. and the width as 6 ft. I am inclined to 

 think this is too little. For one thing horses are 

 taller than they were when his book was written 

 eighteen years ago, and for that if for no other 

 reason I should prefer the length of the stall to 

 be II ft. and its width 7 ft. The height of the 

 partition should be about 7 ft. 6 in. at the head 

 sloping gradually down to the heel post which 

 should be of iron. In some of the partitions 

 we see in stables there is open ironwork at the 

 top. This enables the horses to see each other, 

 which as the horse is a gregarious animal may 

 help to relieve the monotony of his stable life 

 somewhat. But it answers a more important 

 purpose than this, in promoting, or to be strictly 

 accurate, in not impeding the current of air in 



