98 PRACTICAL HINTS ON STABLE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA, 
thereby ensuring the efficiency, of those useful and willing 
labourers for man. 
The wild horse. —Many quote the wild horse, or, as they 
designate him, the horse in a state of nature, as the most to be 
envied, and as the healthiest of the equine race; with these 
hypothetical assertions I venture to differ, for imagine that wild 
horses, in common with those tamed, have their full share of 
discomfort, lameness, deformity, and disease, and, accepting the 
coarse, under-bred Waler as the specimen or sample of the un¬ 
tamed class, with which we are most familiar, should not be 
surprised to find the home-bred animal to be the superior of the 
two in every particular, and maintain that the life of a horse in a 
state of domestication, if he be well tended and judiciously 
managed, will be as enjoyable and his health as perfect as the 
health of any member of the animal world. 
Use of the domestic horse. —When we reflect on the number of 
individuals who live in constant dependence on the horse, some 
to keep them in health, others for their amusement, while very 
many are still further indebted to him, he being the actual bread 
winner for their families and themselves, and bearing in mind 
also that without him and the rest of his species our armies 
would become comparatively useless, it should stimulate one and 
all who have charge of horses, either directly or indirectly, to 
exert themselves to the utmost to promote the welfare of such 
invaluable and profitable animals, especially as they are known to 
be, when stabled, so entirely dependent on their attendants and 
masters for every necessary and comfort of life. 
Health essential. —The prime essential for the maintenance of 
life and for the preservation of health in man are equally neces¬ 
sary for the well-being of animals; they comprise—pure air, 
cleanliness, good food, pure water, warmth, and exercise; and 
the provision of these principles individually with a judicious 
combination of them as a whole will be found to be of material 
benefit to the horses or other stock under our care, and to 
constitute the acme of stable management. 
a. Pure air — ventilation. — In bringing these requisitions to 
notice I shall commence w r ith the first enumerated, pure air.” 
The numerous contrivances for providing this most important 
requisite for the preservation of life and health are w r ell known, 
and belong to the art of ventilation. 
The supply of air in every stable should range from 2000 to 
4000 cubic feet per horse, for a deficiency in this particular is 
one of the most formidable of the foes to successful stable 
management, but at the same time the ingress of it to the 
building should be perfectly under control. 
Plan of stables. —In England the plan on which the majority 
