388 



THE H0R8E. 



Loose boxes should not be less tluin twelve feet square ; but 

 the best size is fifteen by twelve. 



Stalls should not be less than eight feet — nine is better — in 

 depth, by six in width ; and the stable from wall to wall should 

 not be less than fifteen feet in the clear. There should be cup- 

 boards and shelves, for buckets, currycombs, brushes, chamois 

 leathers, and such other things ; and proper places for securing 

 pitchforks, dung forks, brooms, and the like. Nothing must be 

 left lying about, nor must there be 

 any dark holes and corners, for the 

 accumulation of dirt and rubbish, and 

 the encouragement of lazy and slov- 

 enly grooms. 



The divisions of the stalls should 

 be of good sound two-inch oak, if pos- 

 sible, but if not, of pine, plank. Thin 

 stall divisions are dangerous ; as 

 horses will at times kick through 

 them, and lame themselves severely; 

 they should be at least six feet high 

 at the foot post, which should be of 

 solid, stout oak ; and they may be a 

 foot higher at the head. The walls 

 should be wainscoted with oak, to the 

 same height as the stalls, all round 

 loose boxes, and wherever they occur 

 in stalls. 



The best mangers and racks are 

 enamelled iron ones, made in quad- 

 rant form of two foot radius, placed 

 in the opposite corners of stalls or 

 boxes. 



The manger should be about three 

 feet, and the bottom of the rack 

 about four feet, from tlie ground. The 

 bars of the rack should be perpendi- 

 cular, and the back of it sloping forward, from the top to the 

 bottom. There should be a seed drawer under it, and, if it be 

 made with the bars loose, so as to revolve like pivots in sockets 



