306 THE HOKSE. 



gorse fence, either of which should be seven feet high. The door 

 to the hovel should be of elm or oak, and made in two portions, 

 60 as to allow the lower half to be shut without the upper one, 

 in order that air may be admitted at times when the weather 

 will not allow of the mare and foal leaving the hovel ; a small 

 window should be inserted in the wall, and the mangers made 

 in the following manner; — In one corner a manger of good 

 height should be placed for the mare, with a ring above, to 

 which she may be tied ; and in the otlier, a lower one for the 

 foal, by which arrangement the mare is unable, when tied up, to 

 deprive her foal of his corn. The hay-rack is better made on 

 the outside of the wall, so that the groom may be able to re- 

 plenish it without entering the hovel ; and this is easily effected 

 by placing it as an excrescence on the outside, with a lid to turn 

 the wet off, and with bars on the inside. This plan prevents all 

 chance of accident from the gambols of the foal, which often 

 lead it into mischief, if the arrangements are such as to give it 

 any possible opportunity. In the third corner, unoccupied by 

 the door, should be a water-tank, which may be of iron, and 

 should always be replenished with fresh soft water from a river, 

 pond, or rain-water tank. The floor should be paved with flints, 

 stones, or hard bricks, and a well-trapped drain placed in the 

 centre. The yard also should be paved in the same way, though 

 this is not so essential ; and it is sometimes kept replenished 

 with burnt clay, which thus serves the double purpose of ab- 

 sorbing all the urine, &c., and keeping it free from putrefaction, 

 which the clay has the power of doing. It is changed as often 

 as it is saturated, and is then removed to a situation remote 

 from the mares and foals. The partition between the two yards 

 should be partially open, so as to allow the foals to become ac- 

 quainted with each other before they are turned out together, 

 which they generally are at weaning time ; and if then strange 

 to one another, they pine for their dams much more than they 

 do when they have had the pleasure of a previous introduction. 

 When the gorse is used it is applied as follows ; — ^The door-posts 

 and uprights are first fixed, and should be either of oak — which 

 is best — or of good sound Memel fir ; they should be about six 

 inches by four, and should be fixed six feet apart with three 

 feet sunk in the ground. After thus fixing the framework, and 



