64 STABLE ECONOMY 



As a bath for water-fowl the pond has its use ; but as a place 

 for watering and washing the horses, it is useless and per- 

 nicious. The groom or the coachman, if lazy, may consider 

 it a great convenience. He does not know, or he is not very 

 wiUing to know, that it is not proper to drive the horses through 

 this cold water ; that it makes them subject to swelled legs, 

 to grease, to colic, and to cold ; and perhaps he never con- 

 siders that this dirty stagnant water is not very pleasant or 

 wholesome to drink. It is not the place nor the way in 

 which horses should be either watered or washed. If there 

 be no other reservoir for the stables, the water should be 

 taken to the horse, not the horse to the water. To take him 

 there for washing his legs, is a true sloven's expedient. 

 Water for drinking should be as near to the stable as pos- 

 sible ; when it has to be carried any distance, the horse is 

 often neglected. 



Stable-Yard or Shed. — Few, besides the large proprie- 

 tor and the country gentleman, can have a stable-yard for his 

 own use. In towns, the only place in the shape of a yard 

 is the lane. In this the horses must be groomed and the 

 carriage washed. When the stables are ranged in a square 

 or circle, the coaches ought to be washed near the centre, or 

 at some distance from the stables. The practice of doing all 

 the wet work close to the stable-door, keeps the air always 

 cold and damp, and the entrance dirty. In some large es- 

 tablishments there is a covered shed, in front of, or around 

 the stables, or at one side of the yard. There the horses are 

 groomed, and exercised in dirty weather, or walked till cool, 

 dry, and ready for grooming. For this latter purpose it is of 

 great importance. Every coachmaster knows how necessary 

 it is to keep the horses moving until they be nearly dry and 

 cool. Without a covered shed this can not be managed in 

 bad weather. Such a place answers many purposes. It 

 allows all the horses to be groomed out of the stable, thus 

 saving litter, and avoiding annoyance to the other horses. 

 The groom, too, can see better what he is about, and can 

 handle the horse better here than in the stable. When litter 

 is dear, that which has merely been wet with urine can be 

 dried, and made as good as ever, under the shed ; and at 

 night, when not otherwise wanted, it can be converted into a 

 coach-house. 



Such a shed need not be costly. In fact it is nothing but 

 a roof supported on one side by a few pillars, and projecting 

 from a dead wall, or the front of the stables. The width and 



