498 The Book of the Horse. 



A professional man (not a doctor) adopted the plan of always having one horse of his 

 own and a jobbing one. Thus for his daily drive to Westminster he always had a horse at 

 his service ; his wife had a fashionable stepper for her afternoon calls ; and when a distance 

 was to be done, the two were harnessed as a pair. This is an ingenious arrangement, which 

 combines the advantages of the two systems. 



In the country, or wherever the nearest job-master lives a distance of a day's journc}', or 

 where a horse of a useful character and moderate price will do all that is required, and especially 

 where you have a positive pleasure in admiring and petting your horse, you must purchase; but 

 be prepared for a certain per-centage of loss on the average of a series of years, by death, 

 sickness, lameness, and wearing out. 



STABLES. 



Nearly two hundred years ago De Grey wrote : " Your stable ought not to have any unsavoury 

 gutter, channel, or sewer near it. The windows must be fitted with handsome casements and 

 shuts, as well to keep out cold and wind as to let in cool fresh air."* These rules are as sound in 

 the nineteenth as in the seventeenth century, but are often grossly neglected. 



There are certain points that must be attended to, whether the stud consists of one or thirty ; 

 whether the stables have to be built or are already built, and fitted with all the luxurious 

 appliances that have been invented to meet the demands of modern wealth by the competition 

 of the great stable-fitting trade. 



A stable must, if the horses it accommodates are to retain their health, stand on a dry 

 foundation. If it stand on a cold, retentive soil, the stud, however liberally fed and sum.ptuously 

 clothed, will never be without cases of influenza and acute inflammation until the whole area 

 occupied by the stables and yard has been thoroughly drained and dried. 



This operation, placed in the hands of a competent agricultural drainer, can generally be 

 performed at a moderate expense ; but, whatever be the cost, it will be cheaper than losing one 

 horse by death, and the services of others for week after week. A deep drain of porous tiles, run 

 round, or in some cases through and under the stable, and carried to a proper outfall, is the only 

 resource on clay soils. 



If a stable is to be built from the ground, unless the foundation is chalk or deep self-drained 

 gravel, the better plan is to excavate, put in drains, and fill up the area to be occupied with 

 concrete. These drains have no reference to those required for the surface drainage of the stable, 

 but they may be connected with them. 



Ventilation (that is, fresh air) is of as much importance as drainage (that is, dry ground) for 

 keeping horses in the highest degree of health. Many a stud which has been neither sick nor 

 sorry while standing in old-fashioned buildings that let the wind by the roof, the doors, and the 

 windows, have pined and sickened when removed to a building erected regardless of cost. 



A damp stable must be unhealthy, but a stable that is both damp and hot is a pest-house — 

 a seed-bed of diseases of the feet, the lungs, and the eyes. 



Horses that are out all day and every day can resist malarious influences which will surely 

 affect horses highly fed and little exercised. 



When the late Mr. Henry Hope built the mansion opposite the Green Park which is now 

 occupied by a club, he also erected a magnificent set of stables on the first floor over his coach- 

 houses, and carefully drained them into the street sewers. The result was that he lost nearly all 



* "Tlie Com|iIe.it Horseman" (16S0). 



