BARNS AKD STABLES. 39 



CHAPTER HI. 

 BARNS AND STABLES. 



In most instances where a horse is kept for family use, it is 

 stabled upon the premises of its owner. The exceptions to this are 

 found in cities. The resident of a large city who keeps one horse is 

 generally obliged to hire it boarded. Its stabling, care and feeding 

 are entrusted to the proprietor of the boarding stable, and the horse 

 is seldom seen by its owner save in harness or under saddle. Such 

 horses are usually in very good hands. However much foundation 

 there may be for Mayhew's vivid pictures of the brutality and trick- 

 ery of English stablemen, the boarding stables in large American 

 cities are generally in the hands of competent men, who keep a strict 

 eye to business, and whose interest it is that the horses committed to 

 their keeping shall be well fed and cared for. Horses are gregarious 

 in their nature, and other things being equal, one of them enjoys 

 life quite as well in a stable with others as when kept in soUtary 

 confinement, unless the absence of stable companions is made up by 

 incre^ised attention and petting from its owner and other members 

 of the household. 



But the village or suburban dweller must provide a stable on his 

 own premises. Its style and finish will be governed mainly by the 

 taste and pecuniary ability of the owner. But however plain or 

 elaborate it may be, there are certain essential points. The stable 

 must be cool and airy in summer, warm in winter, thoroughly 

 well ventilated, lighted and drained at all times. It should have a 

 stall, or what is far better, a loose box for the horse, a place for at 

 least one vehicle, a snug mouse-proof harness-closet, and storage for 

 grain and fodder. A cupboard for medicines and small articles is 

 very convenient. It is always desirable to have an extra stall for 

 contingencies. Under no circumstances should a horse be stabled in 

 a basement wholly or partially under ground. Such a stable cannot 

 be made cheerful or wholesome, and a horse kept there suffers in 

 health and spirits. Inveterate cases of scratches, defective vision, 

 impaired digestion, and other evils, are the result. Nor can a horse 

 do well in a dark stable. The change from the wild freedom a horse 

 enjoys in a state of nature, to the drudgery and confinement entailed 

 on it by domestication, is enough without imprisonment in a dark 

 dungeon ; dark stables are prolific sources of blindness. 



