72 STABLE BUILDING AND STABLE FITTING. 



partially drawn out they may be used as temporary brackets for 

 harness. 

 Heel-posts The pillars of loose boxes and the heel-posts of stall 



and pillars. divisions, which vary from 3 J to 6 inches in diameter, accord- 

 ing to the description of horse for which they are used, are 

 manufactured also in cast and wrought iron. Of the latter, the 

 St. Pancras Iron Company claim to be the original makers. 

 The posts are made of solid welded plate iron, having bases 

 cast round them forming a plinth to the height of 6 inches 

 above the level of the paving, and adding, by this extra thick- 

 ness, materially to its strength at that part which is the weakest, 

 and also, from its position, the most liable to be fractured. 

 Ramps and The ornamental heads of these posts are most frequently of 



posts. ^g^gj. jj.Qj^^ those of superior manufacture being of brass, whilst 



the rings for pillar reins, or chains, which are fixed in front of 

 the post, or on either side, are also of brass or wrought iron, 

 and will be found illustrated on Plate 15 (Fig. 5). 



A design providing a temporary post hook for hanging harness 

 has been patented which goes back into a flush recess in the 

 post when not in use ; but it appears to the Author an unneces- 

 sary element of danger in the event of the hook being care- 

 lessly left projecting into the passage, which is likely to happen 

 except in the case of loose boxes where they can be placed 

 much higher than in stalls. That the plainer these posts 

 are made the better, seems admitted by the manufacturers, 

 as partitions are made dispensing even with the finials to the 

 posts, the ramp rail finishing with a flat cap or rounded end in 

 place of a ball, as shown on Plate 15 (Figs. 3 and 4), so that 

 the leg may slide off if thrown over the partition by violent 

 kicking. These divisions are, however, unsightly in appear- 

 ance, and in the plain round ball, at the height of 6 feet from 

 the ground, there does not appear any great element of danger. 

 It is very different in the case of a projecting iron hook, or the 

 safety bar before alluded to, when partially drawn out for the 

 same purpose, and only a little over 4 feet from the ground. 



