CONSTRUCTION OF STABLES. 31 



dents ; and the horses do not require the undisturbed repose 

 so necessary to horses in full work. They have nothing 

 to do. 



In Favor of Bales, it is urged that they are less costly than 

 travises, and that, in a large stable, one or two more stand- 

 ings may be obtained. They have no other advantage. The 

 original cost of fitting up the stable is considerably less. The 

 saving, however, is that of a man alive only to the outlay of 

 the present moment. In two or three years the evils of a 

 baled stable may produce the loss of twice, or, it may be, ten 

 times the sum required for travises. When a space of five 

 and a half or six feet can not be allowed to each horse, bales 

 are to be preferred to travises. They give the tired horse 

 some chance of stretching his legs. He vi^ould have none if 

 he were confined to such a narrow stall by a fixed travis. 

 All the additional room that can be thus obtained is just one 

 stall upon every ten. An apartment that would easily hold 

 ten horses is rendered unsafe, uncomfortable to the whole 

 number, merely that it may hold one more. This is suf- 

 ficiently absurd. Where horses are expected to retain the 

 vigor of perfect health, and perform their work with ease, 

 they must have room to obtain complete repose. They are 

 worth very little if they can not work for this much, and the 

 owner must be in miserable circumstances if he can not 

 afford it. 



Gangway Bales are employed only in the stables of very 

 valuable horses. They are merely bars of wood stretching 

 from the heel-post to the back wall. Two and sometimes 

 three are placed between every two horses. They prevent 

 a horse from leaving his stall, though he should break loose. 

 He can not wander over the stable and injure his neighbors. 

 They are removeable. They are, or ought always to be, in 

 place when the stables are shut up, even for a single hour, 

 and when the groom is dressing the horse with his head free. 

 Some horses never break loose, and never attempt it. Stable- 

 men are apt to trust them too much. They make no use of 

 the gangway bales ; it ought to be a standing rule of the 

 stable, that these bales be always in their place. On the eve 

 of an engagement, a racehorse may break loose and receive 

 an injury sufficient to throw him aside. The men are suf- 

 ficiently attentive and vigilant at these times ; but they ought 

 to be equally so at all times. 



Travises are fixed partitions made of wood, and separating 

 the horses so completely that one is not permitted to injure 



