CONSTRUCTION AND FITTING OF STALLS. 231 



accidents caused by their presence on occasions when the 

 horse, on being let loose, has swung himself round in a 

 precipitous manner, owing to his having been hit or threatened 

 by the groom ; and has accordingly knocked his head with 

 more or less violence against the projection on the top of 

 the pillar. 



Divisions of stalls are sometimes furnished with sliding 

 safety bars, which, when not in use, are concealed in tubes let 

 into their respective divisions. When drawn out and fitted 

 into the opposite wall or pillar, they form a useful barrier for 

 blocking up the passage of a horse that may have got loose 

 during the night. When partly drawn out, they may be 

 employed as a temporary bracket for saddlery or harness, 

 which is a practice that is not altogether without danger to 

 horses which are led past the stall, especially in the case of a 

 groom forgetting to replace them after they have served 

 their turn. 



As a protection to the feet of a kicker and also to the 

 boards, a thick mat or other suitable contrivance, about 3^ 

 ft. square, is sometimes hung up against the lower end of the 

 division at the foot of the stall. Alternate divisions are in 

 some cases made movable, so that a box, if required, may be 

 converted into two stalls, and vice versa. 



Swinging bails consist of bars of wood or iron which are 

 suspended horizontally from the ceiling, wall, or other con- 

 venient means of support, and which serve in the place of 

 divisions for stalls. Apart from considerations of economy of 

 space, cost, and time occupied in construction, they are used 

 in the Army with the object of a simultaneous view being 

 obtainable of all the horses in a line of stalls ; and of 

 accustoming the animals to stand quietly close together, as 

 they would often have to do on active service. Various 

 contrivances have been devised for the ready and even 

 automatic release of horses which get their legs over these 



