290 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
be a rack placed at a medium height, and well de- 
fended by bars or slats. 
By this time, however, I assume that the reader 
and myself have put our heads over the first door, 
and are looking inside the stalls. There are five 
in this row, and the solid partitions between them 
run up to a height of less than a foot beyond the 
withers of an ordinary sized horse. At that point 
the partition is continued by three horizontal rails, to 
prevent neighbors from biting each other. An iron 
network would be better, perhaps, but I used a dis- 
carded lightning rod which happened to be on hand. 
Thus, a clear space over all the stalls is obtained for 
light and air, and more especially for social purposes. 
A horse should always be able to see his neighbor; 
and if there is but one loose box in a stable, it should 
be contiguous to the straight stalls. A horse shut up 
in a box stall, made, as it sometimes is, with a solid 
door and but one small window, is forlorn and un- 
happy. In some stables the partitions between the 
loose boxes are composed entirely of iron network, — 
a good arrangement unless it should render the stalls 
draughty. 
The reader will observe that my loose boxes face 
the south, that there is a window in each, and that 
the door is cut in two, having an upper and a lower 
part. Thus, the temperature can be regulated in a 
considerable degree. Good dimensions for a loose box 
to contain a horse of medium size are twelve feet by 
twelve, but a box ten feet by ten, or perhaps even 
smaller, would be better than a straight stall. Mr. 
G. Tattersall states the proper size of a hunter’s box 
as twenty-two feet long and thirteen feet wide. In 
