VIIl] 



STABLE CONSTRUCTION AND SANITATION 



99 



A similar partition to this is also necessary to 

 prevent horses from knocking their heads against 

 the manger after eating hay, etc., lying on the 

 floor at the front of the stall. I remember one 

 horse stunning itself by raising its head suddenly 

 and accidentally knocking it against the manger. 

 A horse without a mane is very liable to do him- 

 self serious harm. For the above reasons, i.e. 

 rubbing the mane and knocking the head, the 

 addition of a wooden or metal framework or 

 partition under the manger is highly advisable. 



390. Water Troughs. Water troughs should 

 be of iron, similar to the mangers, and should be 

 emptied and thoroughly scrubbed out every day. 

 Nothing should be dipped into the troughs. 

 Buckets should be filled from a tap, placed at 

 the end of the trough (outside). The trough 

 should be either filled from a tap or by a stop- 

 cock. It should be emptied through a large tap. 

 In countries where the winter is cold, water 

 troughs should be filled just before being re- 

 quired by a hose pipe laid on from the stable and 

 emptied directly after use. Plugs are not very 

 advisable in water troughs, as horses are liable 

 to knock them out. 



Public drinking troughs should not be used if 

 other water can be obtained, as there is a certain 

 risk of picking up infection ; but, as described 

 in Chapter IV., the risk of picking up disease 

 in such cases is so slight, as is shown by 

 statistics, that it is almost negligible. There are 

 patent antiseptic horse troughs on the market 

 which consist of a separate bowl for each horse, 

 the bowl being refilled before the next horse 

 drinks from it. I thoroughly recommend their 

 installation by city authorities. (See Sec. 153.) 



391. The Loft. Hay and straw are best kept 

 in a loft, or in a separate forage shed. Oats must 

 be kept in a metal or concrete bin, so that rats 

 cannot get at them. In a ferro-concrete stable 

 a bin can be made in the loft with a trap leading 

 down to an iron bin in the stable below. The 

 trap is fitted with a suitable cut-off. Oats should 

 not be kept in large bulk, for fear of becoming 

 heated and causing fire. 



392. Tying up Horses. The best way to tie 

 a horse up is to use a good, strong, smooth, 

 pliable rope with a heavy wooden log of box- 

 wood. For horses that are liable to eat the rope, 

 raw hide straps should be used, as they will 

 never eat them. This rope or strap can be passed 

 through the opening shown in P. 86, which has 

 a brass ring in it to prevent undue wear ; or 

 through a wide staple in wooden mangers. 



In modern stables the rope or strap should 

 pass in between two rollers just underneath the 

 front of the manger, and back underneath the 

 manger to the wall, where it passes over another 

 roller and down close to the wall. The last- 

 named roller is sufficiently far from the wall to 

 allow the log to rise and fall without striking 

 the wall. (See P. 86.) With these arrangements 



there is also no danger of the horse's legs be- 

 coming entangled with the rope, strap, or 

 weight. 



393. Chains and iron logs are very noisy, and 

 disturb other horses at night. A horse must be 

 tied up with a rope of such a length that he can 

 lie down on his side stretched right out at night. 

 A most brutal practice exists in some private 

 stables, where the groom does not allow his 

 horses to lie down properly at night. I have 

 been fortunate in discovering one or two such 

 cases. Every horse-owner should be on the look- 

 out for such matters. 



Horses which at night are liable to cast them- 

 selves while rolling in the stall, by getting a 

 fore foot over the rope, are better if tied up by 

 a chain or rope from each end of the manger 

 without the use of weights, the chains or ropes 

 being of such a length as to allow the horse to 

 lie down properly. 



394. Slings. It is an excellent plan to have 

 strong rings hung from the ceiling or from small 

 girdles below the ceiling over one stall in the 

 stable, for the purpose of attaching slings, in 

 case a horse breaks his leg or requires to be 

 slung up for any other purpose. P. 87 shows 

 the principle upon which a sling should be 

 made and fitted. It will, of course, be necessary 

 to have a movable wooden partition made to fit 

 close to one side of the horse, because a 6-ft. 

 stall would be too wide in which to place a 

 sling properly. The width of the stall can be 

 adjusted to any size by the temporary partition, 

 which should*be padded on the one side. Some 

 thick blankets should be hung over the partition 

 on the other side of the horse. Horses are some- 

 times put into slings without support on each 

 side, but this does not allow for much comfort. 



395. I am indebted to Sir Henry Pellatt, of 

 Toronto, for the photographs reproduced in 

 P. 88, 89a. The stables are indeed a modern 

 equine palace, and the finest I have yet seen. 

 They are fireproof, being built of stone and 

 brick, with ferro-concrete floors and ceilings. 

 They are absolutely sanitary, being lined with 

 glazed tiles. Over each horse's head there is a 

 large window which opens inwards ; it is hinged 

 at the bottom. The stalls are of full width, and 

 the drains are covered with strong cast-iron 

 gratings. The walls are white in colour, to give 

 as much light as possible. Each stall is con- 

 verted into a loose box at night, as previously 

 described, and the stables are automatically kept 

 at any temperature and artificially ventilated. 



P. 89 shows the exterior of a modern palace 

 horse car, belonging to the Canadian Pacific 

 Railway. It holds sixteen or fewer horses, or 

 twelve very large draught horses. It has water 

 and feed troughs. It weighs, when empty, 

 52,000 lb., and carries 30,000 Ib. (15 American 

 tons). The internal dimensions are : length 40 ft. 

 3 in., width 8 ft. 9 in., height 8 ft. 4 in. 



