CONSTRUCTION OF STABLES. 



29 



Fig. 3. 



jury when they chance to fall upon a horse's legs or back. 

 Well-seasoned oak forms a bale of sufficient durability. 

 Two or three of cast-iron may be kept and placed beside 

 those horses that are much disposed to bite and destroy the 

 wooden bale. 



One is placed between each pair of horses. It should be 

 three feet or three feet and a half from the ground. The 

 suspending chains should be about three or four inches long, 

 so that the bale may yield as the horse comes against it in 

 turning round. Bales are employed in almost all the cavalry 

 stables. There, they are furnished with a contrivance which 

 merits notice. It prevents accidents, which are very com- 

 mon in baled stables. The extremity next the manger is not, 

 or need not, be removable ; the other, next the heel-post, is 

 attached in such a way that when a horse gets under the 

 bale, and attempts to rise, he pushes it upward, and it loses 

 its connexion with the post ; or when he happens to cast his 

 leg over the bale, it can instantly be lowered to the ground 

 without lifting the horse. 



Fig. 4 represents the means by which this is effected ; a 

 is the bale ; b a curved bolt by which it is attached to the 

 post. This turns round upon the post, like the hand of a 

 clock. It is retained in its usual place by the ring c, which 



3* 



