STABLING.
I think it highly probable that horse-owners who read this chapter
will be already supplied with stabling, be it such as it may, and I
think it equally probable that whereas some will be ready to compare
their premises with those that I shall advocate, and be anxious to
effect such improvements as I shall venture to suggest, others will
turn scoffingly away from my hints, with the declaration that they have
kept horses all their lives, and have pulled along very well indeed
without any of the new-fangled nonsense of the present day. Of course
it is not for such persons that I care to write, or want to do so; on
the contrary, I prefer to address my remarks to those who desire to
learn. By setting forth the exact principles on which a stable should,
according to my ideas, be built and managed, I shall be affording
information to such as shall either be desirous of building anew, or
of effecting a series of alterations in premises discovered to be
faulty--although hitherto perhaps considered complete.
To begin then. If choice of situation can be had, select that which
will admit of draining, and shelter from cold winds. The aspect should
be southern, and the soil dry. A stable ought never to be built in a
hollow, or near a marsh, nor ought the foundation to be sunk in clay.
These things generate damp, and where this evil exists we may expect
to find coughs, farcy, glanders, bad eyes, and a thousand attendant
misfortunes. If the foundation of a stable cannot be of chalk or
well-drained gravel, the proper plan will be to excavate, put in
superior drains, and fill up the area to be occupied with concrete. The
surface drainage may be connected with the underground, if desired, or
may be quite distinct from it. Surface drains, if not constructed in a
manner that will admit of their being cleaned out from day to day, had
best be dispensed with, and open channels substituted, leading _to the
outside_ of the stable.
Walls should be composed of bricks, glazed on the inside, as such do
not hold any dirt. Posts should be of oak, in preference to iron--and
of the same stout material divisions of stalls and boxes should be
made. If expense is not an object, however, brick will be better still
for the construction of these.
The roof of a four-horse stable should be at least ten feet high, and
that of a six-horse twelve to fourteen, which will be ample. When too
lofty, a cold atmosphere prevails; when too low there is need for very
large ventilators, which create a current, not always either safe or
pleasant.
I do not at all approve of paved flooring, although it is so general.
Roughened asphalte is the best; or a most perfect floor may be made by
laying a concrete foundation, made up with gas-tar, some three or four
inches thick, with stable clinkers set and bedded in it, and the whole
grounded in with Portland cement.
I am a great advocate for box stalls, and would never allow an animal
of mine to be tied up by the head. It is a barbarous and cruel
practice, leading to all kinds of evils, both visible and concealed.
A box should be _at least_ twelve feet by fourteen, and I prefer it
much larger. If it be of brick, it ought to be lined with wood, and
this again with zinc in all places that the horse can use his teeth
upon. Projections of every kind should be avoided, as they are apt
to be injurious when the occupant moves rapidly, or rolls to refresh
himself. In a stalled stable a box may be made by converting the end
stall into one. This can readily be done by having a gate that can be
hung on the stall-post and fastened against the wall. A screen, hung
on rollers from a top bar, is better than a door for closing up a
box-stall. It never gets out of order, nor can any horse--even the most
ingenious--succeed in opening it when once it is let down.
Where stalls are used they ought to be at least ten feet in length, and
six and a-half or seven in width. The flooring of stalls should never
slant to any perceptible degree. When it does there is a continual
strain upon the back sinews and flexor muscles of the horse, and this
he strives to relieve by moving backwards, and resting his hind toes in
the gutter,--a practice which grooms call a vice.
A stable door ought not to be less than eight feet high; this will
enable a horseman to ride out when mounted. It should be quite five
feet wide, and divided into two parts, upper and lower, in order
that the former may be conveniently opened in warm weather. It should
likewise be free of any fastening that projects in even an apparently
trifling degree.
Good ventilation is an absolute necessity in a stable; but in saying
this I do not mean that it should be overdone. Up to the year 1788 the
subject was but little thought of, and ever since that period there
has been a constant outcry against “hot” stables. Such, no doubt,
are highly dangerous, but so are cold ones; and many persons insist
upon confounding _hot_ with _foul_, whereas the terms need have no
connection whatever with one another. In cases of sickness it may be
necessary to keep a horse in a warm stable, but no ailment that ever
was heard of can possibly be benefited by being nursed in a foul or
vitiated atmosphere. There is a great deal of talk about temperature
with regard to stables, but very little indeed concerning purity: a
matter which ought really to engage far more attention.
To ventilate a stable properly there ought to be apertures for taking
away the foul air, and further apertures for admitting a fresh
supply--and these must be placed high up, near the roof; otherwise they
will tend to make the stable unduly cold.
When air is exhaled from a horse’s lungs it is both lighter and warmer
than that which surrounds it, consequently it ascends to the highest
part of the building, and if permitted to escape there it can do no
harm. If, however, there is no aperture so high up, it remains at
the top until it grows cold, and then descends, to be breathed and
rebreathed by the animal over and over again. I cannot get persons to
believe this, or even to understand it. The rooms that they themselves
occupy are at times positive hotbeds of unwholesomeness--every window
shut tight, doors likewise shut and often heavily curtained, while
sandbags are employed in various directions to exclude every breath of
fresh air. Such persons sleep all night long in a vitiated atmosphere,
and think that they are doing wonders if, in the event of the morning
being excessively bright and fine, they open a little bit of the window
_from the bottom_. To tell them that this is injurious would have no
effect whatever; it is comfortable, feels warm, at least--and what
matter about the rest? “New-fangled notions: nothing else”--and so on,
and so forth.
Impure air in stables is one of the evils to be _most_ guarded against.
There may be openings large enough to admit a certain quantity of fresh
air, but they are of little use unless there are others also for the
purpose of letting out that which has been already breathed, before it
has had time to grow cool.
The best windows by far, both for lighting and ventilating, are
ordinary _sash-windows_, well constructed, and reaching quite to the
ceiling. These should be made to open readily at top and bottom, and
should be fitted with cords and pulleys of the very best description. I
know, of course, all the modern appliances off by heart, and am quite
ready to admit the excellence of some of them--indeed, many--but for
general all-round usefulness I prefer the kind that I have advocated.
Sash-windows are capable of affording a splendid current of air: when
the horses are out, for instance, or when the weather is tremendously
hot--and they can be made available for the same purpose even when the
occupants of the stalls and boxes are in their places without creating
a dangerous draught, for the air can be directed ceilingwards by means
of screens or wire blinds.
Another advantage that sash-windows possess over other kinds is that
there is nothing about them to get out of order, except the cords--and
these can, of course, be quite readily renewed; in fact, most handy
stablemen are capable of effecting such simple repairs without having
to enlist the services of outsiders at all.
I like to see windows glazed with rough plate; it is extremely strong
and durable, and is in every way to be commended before the 18-inch
glass, which is both frail and shabby. Blinds ought to be fitted to the
windows, or outside shutters employed, in order to keep out the heat
and glare in summer time.
Stables should be well lighted. I do not at all approve of the
half-and-half system of lighting which generally prevails, and I
strongly _condemn_ the darkness which is too often to be found in them.
I cannot be made to believe that horses, children, flowers, or anything
else, can possibly thrive and be healthy in the dark. Abundance of
light and air is my maxim, and I smile to myself when I see persons
blinking disconsolately in the sunlight, and wondering where the
“draughts” are coming from. Those accustomed to live in hot-houses
call every breath of air a _draught_, and because it is the fashion (a
most pernicious and objectionable one) to darken up dwelling-houses
until every ray of God’s beautiful sunshine and sweet glad light is
entirely excluded, they think that to enter a room where all the blinds
are up, and where sunshafts are darting in through pleasantly opened
windows, is something too awful to be endured. In like manner, grooms
will, when allowed, shut out every ray of light from the houses in
which their charges spend the long hours of their captivity, and will
tell you--if you have the patience to listen to such nonsense--that
“horses thrive better in the dark.” Do not believe a word of it. Just
watch a horse brought suddenly out of a dark stable, in daylight, into
the yard; look closely at his eyes, how the pupils instantly contract,
and the lids rise and fall, with a rapid pained movement, not to be
mistaken. The animal cannot see a single yard before him, and when he
stumbles, or halts, or steps gingerly, the groom has harsh names and
cruel punishments ready for him at command, provided always that the
master or mistress does not happen to be by. You should _insist_ upon
having a plentiful supply of light and air for your horses, for by
so doing, although “death cannot ultimately be defeated, life may be
prolonged.”
I do not disapprove, as some do, of having the hay loft directly over
the stable, but I greatly object to the common method of dispensing the
contents of it through a trap-door in the roof. It is a most pernicious
practice, allowing draughts to penetrate right down upon the horses’
heads, and filling their eyes and nostrils with hay-seeds and dust.
Naturally when an animal knows that it is feeding-time, and sees the
opening of the trap, its head is uplifted to catch the first morsel,
and, as a consequence, its sensitive organs suffer at once. Moreover,
there have been times when the fork, carried in the hand of a careless
stableman, has slipped from him through the opening, and inflicted
serious injury upon the occupant of the stall below.
When the hayloft is over the stable the floor of it should be of brick
or concrete; if of wood, there will always be a difficulty about
excluding vermin, which are the pests of every ill-managed stable.
The outer yard should be partially roofed, but where this is not the
case there ought to be an adjacent room with a paved or asphalted
floor, for purposes of clipping, singeing, &c., none of which
operations ought ever to be performed in a stable or box.
For night lighting I approve of gas, when available; and if in the
country, of lamps fixed with staples. Provision should be made for an
abundant supply of water, arranged according to the source from whence
it is most readily derivable; and to the ordinary stable apparatus, a
long water-hose, together with a number of fire buckets, ought to be
added.
The rack, manger, and drinking-trough should be level to the horses’
knees--the bottoms of them to reach almost to the level of the ground.
This arrangement enables animals to eat and drink as nature intended
that they should. The manger, which should be lined with zinc, ought
to be fitted with a footguard; it is an excellent preventive against
waste of food while eating.
I look with abhorrence upon the ordinary water-pot with chain and plug.
It soils the water if not kept most scrupulously clean, and frets the
horse besides. I approve of those that move upon a pivot, thus enabling
the refuse liquid to be at once turned out, and the pot itself kept
perfectly sweet and clean.
For bedding I do not think that anything is better than prime wheaten
straw, properly shaken down and evened, to secure the comfort of the
horse when he stretches or rolls. To leave it in lumps is both wasteful
and cruel, for when it is so an animal cannot rest upon it for more
than a very short period of time. He becomes restless and disquieted,
he fidgets about, just as we do when we have the misfortune to be put
to sleep on a hard, lumpy, uncomfortable bed,--and by-and-by he stands
up, fretted, and declines to stretch himself any more. Thus his rest is
disturbed and broken, and he is unfitted for his work next day.
Straw must of course be frequently changed, according as it becomes
littered, broken up, or damp. It is sometimes left open to the inroads
of dogs and poultry, a thing that ought to be guarded against for
various reasons, among which may be counted the liability of vermin,
which very soon find their way to the horse.
The best place for a granary is over a shed or coach-house. It ought to
be a cool, airy apartment, with concrete floor, and walls lined with
glazed brick. In small establishments the corn chest supplies the place
of one. This, if used, ought never to be kept in the stable, owing to
the chances so frequently occurring of its being left open by mistake,
and horses breaking loose and gorging themselves almost to death. It
should be placed in a loft, with a tube or shaft attached to bring the
corn to the place where it is required.
Every stable ought to be provided with a copper, or boiler, for heating
water and cooking food. This, both in town and country, should be
considered an indispensable appendage. It is a great advantage, as well
as a saving, to have the boiler made of malleable iron, which will
stand every kind of hard usage without sustaining injury. It should
be placed in a room that will afford space for all kinds of cooking
implements, coolers, pails, &c., and a supply of coals as well. The
entrance to this should be sufficiently wide to admit a good-sized
wheelbarrow, or a cooler on wheels, and there should be a good lock to
fasten the door. The furniture ought to include a couple of iron ladles
for mixing or measuring the food, and a water-pipe with a stopcock
running into the boiler.
The stable “cupboard,” or press, must not be overlooked. It is a
receptacle intended to hold working implements--such as combs, brushes
of all kinds, sponges, scissors, chamois leathers, or “shammies,” as
servants call them for shortness--and a variety of other matters.
The groom should have a key for this, and the master or mistress
will do well to have another, in order that he or she may inspect it
occasionally, and ascertain that it is not put to any improper use.
A groom’s bedroom is a decidedly necessary addition to a
stable,--horses so frequently become ill in the night, or fall to
kicking, or get halter-cast when tied up, or contrive to break loose
and go wandering about the stable,--in fact, so many things, that this
special chamber ought never to be left unprovided, or untenanted. I
speak now of establishments where a number of horses are kept; where
there is only one, or perhaps two, and that they are properly seen
to the last thing at night, there will not, as a rule, be any actual
necessity for a groom to sleep on the premises.
A common appendage to many country stables is a water-pond. It is
usually made to serve for washing and watering the horses, washing the
carriage, bathing the fowls, and drowning supernumerary pups, kittens,
and stray cats. I strongly recommend its removal--or at all events, the
removal of any servant who leads a horse to drink at it, fetches water
from it for feeding purposes, or drags any vehicle through it for the
ready disposal of the mud upon the wheels.
Harness and saddle rooms should be entirely distinct from stables.
They should contain stoves or fireplaces, and should be perfectly
dry, lightsome, and well aired. There should be an abundant supply
of racks for whips, &c., brackets for saddles, pegs for bridles, a
good wide shelf for miscellaneous articles, and a lock-up press for
horse-clothing, leg bandages, and other matters of a like description.
A cat about a stable is a decided acquisition; therefore secure a
respectable grimalkin of steady, sober habits, and give her the run
of the place. She and the horses will be fast friends in a very short
space of time; she will get her own living, with the addition of a
trifle of milk now and again, and will ask no warmer bed in winter than
the sleek back of one of her equine companions.
[Illustration: FAST FRIENDS.]