STABLE APPENDAGES 65 



length must v.iry. Fourteen feet will make it sufficiently 

 wide, and in length it may be forty or sixty, or as long as> 

 possible. The roef may be of unplastered tile. The floor 

 may be causewayed or pitched with pebbles. At one end, 

 about twelve feet may have a soft bottom for those horses 

 ihat beat the ground very much when under the groom's 

 operations. The soft floor saves the feet, prevents the horse 

 from striking oft* his shoes. It may be all alike, but if wet 

 be admitted such a floor is never in order. 



Harness-Room. — In some large stables, where a saddler 

 is kept, his workshop forms the harness-room. In others 

 there is an apartment for the spare and old harness. In 

 posting establishments there is usually a dry room, with a 

 fireplace in it. Each set of harness is numbered, or named, 

 according to the horses it belongs to, and hung always in the 

 same place. In stage-coach stables and others of a similar 

 kind, the harness in use is commonly hung in the stable, each 

 horse's being placed on his stall-post. This encumbers the 

 stable very much ; but it appears to be the most convenient 

 way of disposing of the harness. In gentlemen's stables, the 

 saddles and harness are generally placed in the groom's sleep- 

 ing-room, or in the coach-house. The stable is a bad place to 

 keep them in. They get damp, soiled, and knocked about a 

 good deal. In coaching stables, the harness is not so easily 

 injured, and it is in constant use. Besides being dry and well 

 aired, the room should have plenty of light ; there should be 

 racks for the harness, whips, and boots ; stools or brackets 

 for the saddles ; pegs for the bridles ; a shelf for miscella- 

 neous articles ; and a cupboard for brushes, sponges, ban- 

 dages, bits, clothes, and other things of this kind, not in con- 

 stant use. 



Stable Cupboard. — In those stables where the men are 

 often changed, or where several are working together, each 

 should have a small cupboard furnished with a good lock. 

 In this the man may deposite his working implements, such as 

 combs, scissors, sponge, brushes, or whatever he receives 

 from the master. They are safe from thieves, and he can 

 have no excuse for losing them. In some cart-stables the 

 driver receives his horse's daily allowance of grain every 

 morning ; but unless each can keep his own, one will steal 

 from another. This cupboard should have a box for holding 

 the grain too. 



Groom's Bedroom. — Wherever a number of horses are 

 kept together in stables, accidents will frequently happen 



6* 



