MERITS OF LOOSE BOXES AND STALLS. 227 



which has another box or stall alongside of it, must be high 

 enough to prevent the horse putting his head over them ; he 

 will be unable in such circumstances to turn round in as 

 narrow a space as he could do in a stall of similar width, over 

 the side divisions of which he could place his head and a por- 

 tion of his neck. A horse in a box as narrow as an ordinary 

 stall, might easily hurt himself by trying to turn quickly round. 

 Also, a horse during the night when lying down in a stall, 

 generally utilises a portion of the gangway to stretch himself 

 out, at a time when that passage is not in frequent use. The 

 economy in space is much greater with swinging bail stalls 

 than with ordinary stalls. 



3. Economy of Labour. Even if a loose box, supposing, of 

 course, that the horse was allowed to be loose in it, was only 

 the same size as a stall (instead of being usually about double 

 the size), it would require more labour to keep in order ; 

 because a loose horse will disarrange or "mess about" 

 (" morter " as they say in Leicestershire) his bedding, will 

 dirty himself and his clothing more than in a stall, and will 

 give trouble by distributing his dung and urine more or less 

 impartially about his box, instead of depositing them in one 

 place and in a convenient position for removal, as the animal 

 would do, were he tied up. It is evident that swinging bail 

 stalls are easier to clean out than even ordinary ones. The 

 only circumstance that would justify a master in consulting 

 the comfort of his groom in preference to that of his horses, is 

 the fact of the servant having more animals than he can 

 attend to. Although this saving clause might apply to a man 

 who, like a cab proprietor, has to make his livelihood out of 

 his horses, it can have no reference to the owner of " pleasure 

 horses." So great is the disfavour with which the large 

 majority of grooms regard the beneficial practice of giving 

 horses freedom to move about and to assume a comfortable 

 position in which to lie down, that, except in training stables 



15* 



