676 
STABLE MANAGEMENT. 
3. Have the floors of brick, nearly level, slightly tending to 
the drain in the centre of the box. 
4. Have plenty of light, and have the windows so arranged 
that you can regulate the quantity as you please. 
5. Ventilate! on scientific principles if you can— but 
ventilate ! Have openings above for the foul air to escape, 
and some below for the pure air to enter. Very little 
ingenuity is required to arrange some simple contrivance 
for directing the lower current so as not to strike on the 
animals’ legs. 
6. Make each box as high and long and wide as your 
ground will permit ; we don’t prescribe any particular 
number of feet; in reason, you cannot have too much room, 
and you must have enough to permit the horse to turn easily 
in all directions. 
7. Patronise iron mangers, water troughs, and racks, and 
let every box have one of each, taking the liberty to put the 
rack quite low, that the horse may eat his hay in the way he 
prefers, with his head down ; if you will put the fodder 
nearly out of his reach, he will occasionally show his contempt 
of your ignorance by pulling it to the ground before he eats it, 
employing it then in about equal proportions as food and 
litter. So much for the mere receptacle ; now for the thing 
to be received. 
At what age may the cart-colt be taken from the paddock 
and straw yard, for the purpose of being stabled and worked ? 
We assume that the animal has been well kept, that he has 
had plenty of good grass in the field, and good hay in the 
yard. If you wish to be economical, and starve your horses, 
wait until they have done growing ; it does not pay before 
that time. We assume also that the young animal has been 
handled about the head and legs frequently, and accustomed 
to the sound of clanking iron ; otherwise his first visit to the 
forge will perhaps leave an impression of so disagreeable a 
character as to render him totally unmanageable for a long 
time afterwards on each recurring visit. These preliminaries 
being settled, we answer our question of “what age?” by 
saying three years at least, and we don’t intend to abate one 
single week. If we could trust you, or rather your servants, 
we would let you have the two-year-old for some very light 
work ; but we cannot make you understand that the light 
work of an adult horse is abject slavery to so young a one, 
and having been more than once deceived we cannot run the 
risk again. At three years old, then, take your colt, and 
have him shod for the first time. Ah ! this first shoeing ! 
