STABLE FITTINGS. 169 



A better plan is to use a plank of elm instead of a pole for the 

 bail, and the difference of cost is not very great. I have myself 

 adopted this plan with advantage in a two-stalled stable, which is 

 too narrow for a travis, the whole width for two horses being barely 

 ten feet. Here, of course, two stalls would be unsafe, for no horse 

 can be accommodated properly with less than five feet six inches 

 from inside to inside of stall-posts, and this would require eleven 

 feet six inches, being eighteen inches more than I had to do with. 

 I find that a plank of elm, one inch and a half in thickness and 

 eighteen inches deep, will protect a horse very effectually from the 

 kicks of his neighbor; and as I happen to have had an inveterate 

 kicker in one of the stalls for six months, without injury to her 

 fellow, the trial has been a pretty severe one. The hangings at 

 each end are just the same as for bails, a chain, in my stable, 

 descending from the ceiling, and no tail-post being used on account 

 of the propensities of the mare in question. She would have de- 

 molished any fixed post behind her in a single night; but the 

 hanging plank of elm not being a fixture, gave way to her blows, 

 and she soon left it alone. If the horse is tied up with one rein 

 only, he can bite his neighbor with great facility over the bail, 

 but two reins are just as efficient with hanging bails as with a 

 travis, and these should never be neglected. 



The length of the travis should never be less than six feet 

 six inches, and if the stable is fourteen feet deep, which it ought at 

 least to be, the travis may be seven feet long with advantage. Be- 

 yond this length it should not extend except in very roomy stables, 

 as there is danger of straining the back in turning out of a nar- 

 row gangway into the stall. No travis should be less than seven 

 feet in height at the head, and four feet six, or five feet at the 

 tail-post. If lower than this, the horses can bite each other over 

 the head, or kick over the tail, and so become hung, from which 

 latter accident serious mischief may ensue. The tail-post is gene- 

 rally made only to reach high enough to take the ring for the pil- 

 lar reins, but it is far firmer if carried to the ceiling. When the 

 stable is to be built from the ground, the tail-posts may be made 

 to economize wood in the flooring-joists above, as they diminish 

 their length by one-half. A moderately stout beam, say eight 

 inches by four, is carried from end to end, and into this the posts 

 are framed, while the joists, running in the direction of the stalls, 

 are only seven feet long each, for which a very small scantling 

 will suffice, even if heavy weights of hay and straw are placed in 

 the loft. This is a great consideration, as the floor of the loft re- 

 quiring to be made strong, the joists, when fourteen or fifteen feet 

 long, should be at least ten inches deep. If wooden posts are sunk 

 into the ground, which they must be if short, they soon decay, 

 whereas, when they reach the ceiling, as I have advised, they may 

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