HORSES AND STABLES 259 



vicinity. Fires, too, have occurred in stables where 

 there was artificial heating, and this, we think, should 

 never be used under any circumstances. It is often 

 stated with some show of authority that the tempera- 

 ture of a stable should be about sixty-two degrees, but 

 in a hot summer it is difficult to keep either a stable 

 or a box as cool as this, even with all the windows and 

 the door open, while in winter the temperature must 

 at times be very much lower, unless indeed the stable 

 is small, close, and stuffy. 



Roof room should be made a strong point, for it is 

 only when there is plenty of open space at the top of 

 the box or stall that the proper degree of coolness can 

 be obtained. If horses are kept in too hot an atmo- 

 sphere they become delicate, susceptible to cold, and 

 at times bad feeders. Too much heat does far more 

 harm to hunters than cold air about them, provided 

 that there are no draughts. In a state of nature the 

 horse can stand the hardest winter out of doors, as is 

 proved by the fact that the half-wild ponies on Exmoor, 

 in the New Forest, and further north, as in the Shet- 

 land Isles and Norway, flourish out of doors all the 

 year round, no matter what the weather may be. 

 Horses which have been regularly worked, too, are 

 constantly turned out for the winter, and such horses, 

 when once their winter coat has grown, seem to be 

 none the worse for living in the open air. The horse 

 which is kept stabled, groomed, fed on specially-chosen 

 food, and worked regularly, may not be so hardy 

 when he is living under these conditions of confine- 

 ment, but he is protected by rugs in the stable, and 

 where stables are kept really cool, an extra rug in times 

 of frost and snow will meet the case far better than any 

 artificial heating. 



