80 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



religious misery and cruelty where dwell *' sisters of mercy," 

 took it into her head, as a penance for " wandering thoughts," 

 to sentence a young devotee to sit opposite a blank white- 

 washed wall for a certain number of hours per diem. The 

 result was not exactly what was intended ; the poor girl's 

 eyes inflamed, the white w^all became blood-red to her 

 tortured vision, and she went incurably blind. This is an 

 extreme case ; but how many horses may owe their loss of 

 sight to a want of caie in this respect by their masters and 

 their grooms ? The fading light of day will usually bring 

 the hour of rest. When, however, the hours of the 

 horse's labour are at night, something approaching the 

 dimness of twilight seems most grateful and natural to the 

 animal, and to induce feeding and repose. 



The Floor. — As to the slope to be given to the floor of each 

 stall, many of the older stables have an undue declivity to the 

 drain ; although the rapid carrying off" of the urine is cer- 

 tainly desirable, yet too rapid a slope strains the back sinews, 

 and is not an unfrequent cause of occasional lameness. Mr. 

 Lawrence illustrates this by a clear example, founded on a 

 just observation of the horse's foot as compared with the 

 human leg. " If the reader," he says, " will stand for a few 

 minutes with his toes higher than his heels, the pain he will 

 feel in the calves of his legs will soon convince him of the truth 

 of this remark. Hence, when a horse is not eating, he always 

 endeavours to find his level, either by standing across his 

 stall, or else as far back as his halter will permit, so that 

 his hind-legs may meet the ascent on the other side of the 

 channel." Blaine, too, judiciously remarks : 



" In the stables of dealers in carriage- horses, an ascent in 

 the standings of nearly tw^o inches in the yard is sometimes 

 made, to give a greater appearance of height to the yet 

 unfurnished four-year-old horses, which are thus often passed 

 upon the unwary as horses of five years old. Is no strain 

 put upon their legs ? Our experience, which has been some- 

 what extensive in these matters, convinces us that the 

 inequality in the standings of horses is a fertile source of 

 contraction of the feet. What but the pain and incon- 

 venience which follow an uneven position occasions horses, 

 when not feeding, to be so frequently found standing across 

 instead of lengthways in their stalls ? How frequently also 

 will the horse boxed in a stall be found with his croup 

 turned towards the manger ? To avert these evils, and yet 



