92 HUNTING. 



these stables this at least may be claimed, that horses thrive in 

 them, though the Badminton horses most certainly do a great 

 deal of work. Days and distances are long in this country, and 

 it must be remembered that the seivants of a hunt tax their 

 horses severely. That horses should keep well and come out 

 fit in their turn is a strong argument in favour of their residence 

 and treatment. Here the stud is necessarily large. A pack 

 which hunts five days a week makes heavy demands on horse- 

 flesh ; but the rules which are found serviceable here will be 

 equally suitable for smaller stables. 



All the hunters at Badminton are provided with loose boxes, 

 the dimensions of which will be seen in the drawings. The 

 fifteen feet of height to the ceiling line insures by the aid of 

 ventilation the needful supply of fresh air. A ventilator is fixed 

 in the ceiling line over every box, and air bricks a few inches 

 from the ground are let into the walls behind the boxes. 

 Windows are built on the division line of every other box, 

 and there are windows also on the opposite walls, the posi- 

 tions of which are indicated. A free and abundant current 

 of air is thus provided. The weather is rarely so bad that 

 these windows may not be opened at least for some part of the 

 day : if the horses appear to be cold, additional clothing is 

 put upon them. It was formerly the custom to completely 

 darken many stables during several hours of every day, the plea 

 being that horses could then rest better. The system is totally 

 unnatural and therefore totally wrong. Horses are creatures of 

 custom, and will rest perfectly well in the daylight. A dark 

 stable almost inevitably becomes a hot stable, and the abso- 

 lute necessity of air to keep a horse in health cannot be too 

 strenuously insisted on. 



That a horse should stand day after day with his fore legs 

 on a higher level than his hind must surely be detrimental to 

 him. His back sinews and fetlock joints will be more or less 

 strained. This again is unnatural, and it may be broadly said 

 that whatever is unnatural is mischievous. The floors of the 

 Badminton loose boxes are therefore laid perfectly level, and 



