THE STABLE 9 



the stable. Care should be taken that the par- 

 titions are high enough to prevent the horses 

 getting hold of them. 



When economy of space is of urgent necessity, 

 and where the stables are so confined that sufficient 

 ventilation is difficult to obtain, for instance as in 

 the case of cavalry horses, swinging bails are 

 used instead of partitions to divide the stalls, and 

 of course when this is the case the stalls are much 

 narrower, sinking to 5 ft. 6 in. But in private 

 stables, where valuable horses are found, swinging 

 bails are practically never seen and they are 

 only mentioned incidentally. 



Some horses, when they are tied up, develop 

 a nasty habit of kicking against the stalls, and 

 some will kick so persistently that they injure 

 themselves considerably. A sack stuffed with 

 hay or, better still, a thick mat nailed to the stall 

 some 3 ft. 6 in. from the ground will save him 

 from much of the consequences of his folly. I 

 have occasionally nailed bushes of furze to the 

 stalls, and that soon makes a horse drop kicking, 

 but when this is done care should be taken to 

 look for pricks. 



I have seen stables in which the floors were 

 made of round cobble stones and the stalls had 

 a big slope down to the rear. Needless to insist 

 that these stables were built on a wrong principle, 

 and that horses regularly standing in that stable 

 wore out much sooner than they should have 

 done. The flooring of a stable and the slope of 

 the stalls are matters for serious consideration. 



