20 THE COMPLETE HORSEMAN 



should be carefully seen to. In some new stables 

 water is ' laid on ' in each stall or box, but for 

 reasons which will be given later it is not desirable 

 to have water always before the horses. Never- 

 theless there seems no reason why there should 

 not be a place provided to set a pail in, as occa- 

 sionally horses drink better when left to them- 

 selves. The old-fashioned rack should never be 

 seen in a modern stable. The only use an over- 

 head rack has is to save an idle groom a little 

 trouble, whilst the hay seeds may drop into the 

 horse's eyes and do considerable mischief. I 

 would not have a rack in the stable at all but 

 would feed the hay from a deeper manger. At 

 the best a rack harbours a lot of dust and dirt 

 and serves no necessary purpose. More especi- 

 ally is it unnecessary in these days when the 

 quantity of long hay that is fed is comparatively 

 small. 



A wooden manger should never be used 

 unless the owner wishes his horse to learn the 

 bad habit of cribbing. I have used mangers 

 of glazed earthenware, and they have the ad- 

 vantage of being clean and easily kept in good 

 condition. They should be built into the side 

 of the stable and the inner v/all attached to 

 them should slope outwards so that there is no 

 danger of the horse hitting his knee on the 

 bottom of the manger. I have known some 

 nasty accidents happen from this cause. Horses 

 are apt to stamp and paw in the stable and 

 they frequently hit their knees with more or 



