160 LIGHT HORSES: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



brought out of a dark dungeon sort of place is very apt to shy 

 and be co lie frightened. Moreover, where there is darkness 

 there is generally dirt, for a stableman cannot see to thoroughly 

 cleanse the place, and unless a stable be scrupulously clean 

 it cannot be healthy, while the slightest particle of stale food 

 left in the manger will often cause a horse to refuse his corn. 

 Nevertheless, we know that at any rate in towns, it is im- 

 possible to have stables as they should be, and in all pro- 

 bability both cab horses and expensive carriage horses will 

 continue to be housed in places which are admittedly unfit 

 for equine habitation. When about to rent stabling, how- 

 ever, the horse-owner would do well to decline at any price 

 stables which are dark, or which have no other means of 

 ventilation than a door or window at one end, if, that is to 

 say, the stable contains more than about two stalls. We 

 may, however, remark in passing that by light stables we 

 do not mean glaring ones, and no horse should be housed in 

 a light stable, the walls of which are whitewashed all round. 

 In stalls the wall above the manger to rather more than 

 the height of a horse's head, should be of a cool, neutral tint 

 colour ; and in loose boxes the same arrangement may prevail 

 all round. 



It is scarcely within the scope of this work to treat of the 

 necessity for adequate ventilation from the scientific point of 

 view ; but the reader may be reminded that without a sufficient 

 supply of fresh air the blood cannot be in a proper state ; and 

 when the horse breathes, whatever there is impure in the blood 

 is given off into the air, so that if there be no adequate venti- 

 lation the horse breathes again the impure air, consequently 

 the purity of the blood and the general health of the horse 

 depend greatly upon the quality of the air inhaled into the 

 lungs. 



In that most excellent book which should be in the library 

 of every horse-owner, " Horses and Stables," by Sir F. Fitz- 

 wygram, the author says : " Fortunately the peculiar pro- 

 perties, or rather the state of the gases which respectively 



