THE STABLE

Once you have a horse, the next thing is to provide a place for him to live in. It may be better to keep a horse in a livery-stable rather than to have no horse at all, but certainly nine-tenths, and something more, of the pleasure of owning horses is lost if you have no stable of your own. There are three classes of stables,—good stables, bad stables, and magnificent stables; just as there are three kinds of lies,—lies, damned lies, and statistics. Wise men have good stables and sometimes tell lies; ignorant and bad men have poor stables and often tell damned lies; gamblers and shoddy millionnaires—!

Whatever else they may have, good stables must infallibly have light, air, and good drainage. To accomplish these things, the stable should be above the level of the ground surrounding it, if only a few inches, to facilitate proper drainage. It should face preferably south or west, to get the largest possible amount of sunlight. Pay no attention to any talk about "a dark stable." It is an exploded notion. It is of course necessary to be able to darken the part of the stable where the horses take their rest; and it is a great convenience to have a box-stall or two, separated entirely from the others, where a horse may be kept quiet, cool, and out of the light. But if necessity demands a choice between light and darkness, choose the light every time. Sunlight is the best antiseptic in the world for either men or horses.

The size of the stable depends upon the purse. It is not a question of the number of horses, because no horse owner was ever known to have all the horses he wanted. Just as every yacht owner wishes to add just ten feet to his yacht, so every man with a stable of horses could use just one or two more to advantage. It is a fair statement to work upon, however, that every horse in a stable is entitled, for his health and comfort, to nine hundred cubic feet of space, at least. Next to the proper allowance of food and water, this matter of good air in the stable is the most important of all. The gases given off through the lungs and skin, and those generated from urine, and fÆces, are poisonous and irritating. Coughs, colds, bad coats, swelled legs, general debility, are all due to badly ventilated stables, and if a contagious disease starts in such a stable, it is well-nigh impossible to save any one of the inmates.

Bad ventilation does not mean necessarily that a stable is hot, nor good ventilation that a stable is cold. If properly managed, a stable may be so ventilated as to avoid either extreme. What is wanted is abundance of fresh air without draughts. All systems of ventilation are based upon the principle that heated air expands and ascends, so that the inlets should be below, the outlets above. The inlets should be so arranged that the cool air does not come in where it may blow upon the legs of the horses or make them uncomfortable when lying down.

All windows and doors should be kept in easy working order, so that it is no trouble to servants to open and close them.

For after all has been said and done upon these matters theoretically, the practice will depend almost entirely upon the man or men in charge. I would rather have a poor stable, with a first-rate man in charge of it, than the best stable ever built, with a careless, indifferent, ignorant, and occasionally inebriate man in charge. No mechanical arrangements, no matter how minute and delicate in their serviceability, are of the slightest value when in control of the incompetent. Spend time, thought, money, and patience in building yourself the best stable your purse permits; but in proportion spend even more in procuring the man who is to be at the head of it.

When you get him, don't pamper him, or bribe him, or kotow to him,—no self-respecting man is held by such bonds,—but make him your friend and run your stable jointly with him, respecting him in his capacity and retaining his respect for you in yours.

Above all things, abjure the maudlin sentiment of the day, that there should be no master and no man. The universe, so far as telescope can see, the earth, from centre to rim, recognize love, law, and obedience. Every intelligent man is the servant of somebody, and ought to be proud of it; if he is not, something is radically wrong with him or the master he has chosen to serve. Try to make the man in the stable proud of being your servant. If you succeed, everything will go well; if you cannot accomplish this with love and law, then you will have to fall back upon some makeshift, like money, and get on the best you can. But make no mistake, and save yourself untold troubles by realizing at the start that money alone does not make good servants in the stable or anywhere else. The sailors who fought with Paul Jones, and the cavalry-men who rode with Phil Sheridan, were not thinking much of their pay. The manikin moved by money will spoil your stable, your temper, and your horses. Study carefully the characters of those who are continually complaining of their servants!

The simpler the construction of the stable, the better. Have as few separate rooms and as few passageways as possible; this means light, air, cleanliness, and convenience. If you are about to build a stable, go about among your friends, view their stables, and hear what they have to say from their experience. Money spent in practical inspection before building will be saved many times over, in getting what you want, and, best of all, knowing why you want it.

A few inches above the ground is enough for drainage; if the stable is higher than this, you have a pent to go up and down at the stable door. In winter this is dangerous, and at all times it frets the horses to slide out of the stable at the start-off.

Your entrance door should be at least 10 feet 6 inches wide and at least 10 feet 6 inches high.

The ceilings in coach house, and over the stables, should be at least 12 feet high, and a foot or two more gives that much more air space.

Windows in coach house, saddle room, harness room and cleaning room should be at a height convenient for opening and shutting and always in easy working order. Windows in stalls and boxes should have the lower sill at least 6 feet 3 inches above the ground, so that the light shall not be in the horse's eyes and draughts shall not blow upon them. These windows should all have shutters on the outside, should hinge from the bottom, let down from outside in, and be enclosed on the inside in a box to prevent side draughts.

The stalls should be at least 9 feet long, though 10 feet is not too long, and at least 5 feet 7 inches wide, though a narrower stall may prevent a horse getting cast. If there are stalls on both sides, or stalls on one side, and boxes on the other, the aisle between should be at least 10 feet wide, that the horse may be brought out and turned comfortably.

If possible, have one or two box-stalls completely detached from the other stalls and boxes, for sick horses, for horses needing rest and quiet, and for new horses that may come into the stable with distemper.

If there are living rooms over the stable, do not have them over the horses. Horses ought to be allowed to sleep in peace.

The coach-house floor should be preferably of wood on account of dampness, though cement is cheaper, and in a well-aired and dry stable is good enough.

The aisle between stalls should be of brick, or of well-laid small flint brick, laid in mortar, and with the lines running parallel to one another, and not in herring-bone fashion, so that a hose and a stable broom can thoroughly cleanse the cracks. Any other arrangement requires a knife to get all the dirt away.

The stalls should have brick floors, or brick or cement, with a slatted wooden floor over it. There are advocates of wood alone and brick alone for the stall floor; the slats are a fair compromise. These slats should run down the centre of the stall, beginning some 4 feet from front of stall. The slats should be held together with iron rods, and either pull out bodily or move on hinges, so that the stall may be washed out thoroughly with the hose. The partitions between stalls should be 7 or 8 feet high in front and 5 or 6 behind. It is well to leave a few inches of space between the partitions and the wall in front, and between the bottom of the partitions and the floor, for circulation of air.

The ideal stall would have both a box-drain in the centre, and a drain running at the bottom from one end of the line of stalls to the other at a slight incline. The latter is sufficient, however. Horses should stand as nearly as possible on a level. A slope of one in eighty is enough for drainage.

Box-stalls should have a centre drain with a well-secured top to prevent accident. All drainage in stables should be surface drainage. Permit no underground pipes, traps, or drains in your stable! Boxes should be at least 10 feet 6 by 12 feet.

It is claimed by practical horse owners of long standing that no more straw is used in stalls and boxes with brick floors than in those with wooden or wooden slat floors, and that the former are cleaner. It goes without saying that the less wood and iron you have in stalls and boxes, the better. They rust, corrode, get soaked, and smell. In a well-kept stable your nose should not be a factor in the recognition of the fact that you are in a stable.

The harness room should be of wood throughout, ceiling as well, to avoid dampness. Unless you have dozens of sets of harness, some of which are seldom used, and therefore conveniently kept in cases, cover your harness-room walls with baize stuff, and have your harnesses in the full blaze of all the light and publicity there is. They will be kept better.

Have a box with a baize stuff back and a glass door for bits, chains, etc., and have it too big rather than too small.

Harness room, coach house, saddle room, and cleaning room should each have a place for a stove.

There should be no artificial heat where the horses are kept. Well-blanketed horses can be kept without injury even in an occasional temperature of 30°, as happened frequently in many stables during the severe winter of 1903-4. Such a temperature is not good for them, but even that is much better than artificial heat incompetently superintended.

Six or seven horses in one stable are enough. They have more air, more quiet, are kept cleaner, and the coming and going makes less disturbance and does not change the temperature of the stable so violently.

In this climate a stable of wood is cheaper, cooler in summer, warmer in winter, and, at all times, drier.

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After studying a number of stables and experimenting with my own, I should build a stable—say to accommodate seven horses, or fourteen at a pinch—as follows: coach house to stand fourteen vehicles (Plate XV.). The building to face south or west. Horses to face, the majority of them, to the north. Ground floor 4 inches above the outside ground. Entrance door to slide and to be 10 feet 6 inches wide and the same in height. The ideal thing, of course, is to be able to drive through your stable by having another door opposite your entrance door. It only diminishes the wall space, and is convenient in many ways, especially in a country stable, where you may wish to stand a horse and trap indoors. Drive in the door on to carriage wash, sloping toward drain in centre, this to be of cement. Sliding door to the right admitting to the stables, with six stalls facing north and two box-stalls facing south. Space 10 feet by 10 feet for cleaning harness, between box-stall and wall that separate carriage wash from stables, with a door at the end, half door preferred, furnished with hooks and two telescope harness-hangers, water-trough, and shelves. Aisle, 10 feet wide between stalls and box-stalls, laid in vitrified brick, all lines between bricks running into one another both lengthwise and sideways for greater convenience in cleaning. Drain in centre of each box-stall, and covered drain running at foot of stalls. Covers of all drains removable, and drains to be easily washable with hose. Stalls floored with brick, box-stalls of the same. Half door at end of aisle to face large door leading into carriage wash. In this climate, screens on all doors and windows for summer. Windows as described. Feed and hay to come down shafts on one side of space allotted to harness cleaning. Trough in that space with cold water only. Hot water to be furnished by boiler on stove in carriage house. No separate harness cleaning room in a stable of this kind. The rough work can be conveniently done in the space described, and the polishing, dusting, etc., in the harness room. This saves an extra room, probably dark, and at any rate another room to be kept clean. Carriage house to the left of carriage wash, preferably floored and ceiled with wood, with hospital, or rounded corners and edges, so that it can be readily and thoroughly cleaned, 25 by 35 feet, which will easily contain twelve to fifteen vehicles.

Harness room to be entered from end of carriage wash opposite entrance door, to be eleven by twenty-four, walls lined with baize and furnished with fixtures for harness, saddles, whips, etc. Two extra box-stalls, tool room, water-closet, and separate entrance, with stairs to living rooms above, built out from southwest angle of carriage house. These box-stalls to have half doors, if possible, opening into a small paddock and floored with dirt or peat moss. Forty dollars' worth of Miss Hewitt's well-made hurdles will make you a very useful paddock and save scores of dollars in veterinary bills. By all means have cleats to form a ladder on the wall of the hay-shaft, so that the man can get directly and quickly to his horses in case of accident or danger. Poles, fastened to the wall with hinges, so that they are not in the way when not used, along the walls of the carriage house, for robes, and rests for poles themselves. Chests lined with tin for travelling and for storing winter or summer clothing, blankets, robes, etc.

Hay should be fed from the floor, not from overhead mangers. Feed boxes and water-receptacles movable, that they may be from time to time taken out to be scoured and sunned. Horses watered with water-buckets and not by having water in stalls always at hand. As regards this practice, the theory is indisputable, but in practice you have dirty water, stale water, water when horses are heated or just after meals, unless you have first-class servants; and if you have these, the buckets are safer and save that much plumbing—the less of which you have in a stable, the better. In such a stable you drive your carriage in on to the wash. The horses are unhooked and taken into the stables, where if it is a raw day the door may be closed. The harness is taken off, hung on hooks, and the horses are cared for. The harness is then cleaned and taken to the harness room, where it may be given finishing touches. The carriage is washed down and run into its place, and all with the very minimum of going and coming and so arranged that no dirt need be carried across clean spaces. Horses, carriages, and harness are all landed where they are to be first cared for, and are then close to where they belong when cleaned. This of course is an economical plan, and is not intended to describe the ideal stable. It is merely an ideal stable for a man of moderate means.

Once a week, weather permitting, all carriages should be aired and sunned outside. It may be said, however, that a thoroughly dry carriage house is better than even this much exposure to the sun, with the effect of fading cushions, trimmings, etc. Saddles should always be dried in the sun when possible. Once a week, too, the coach house should be cleaned and dusted. Once a week horses should be moved from their stalls to other stalls or box-stalls, bedding removed, slats lifted or taken out, if there are slats, and the stable flushed and broomed out thoroughly and sprinkled with disinfectant and water. I have known stables where there has not been a sick horse for years, except in the case of new horses with distemper. The temperature of a stable is best between 50° to 70°. The nearer it is kept at 65° the year round, the better.

Into the details of fixtures, implements, architectural and plumbing minutiÆ, it is not the purpose of this small volume to go. There are books which cover this ground completely, accurately, and in great detail, the titles of which may be found in the Bibliography.

Although only the ground plan of a stable is outlined and described here, the rooms above the stable are important. The coachman, with or without family, should live in the stable, and it is convenient to have the undermen there too if possible. Horses should never be left to take care of themselves through the night. The living rooms should be properly ventilated, heated, and provided with bath rooms, and everything within reason done to make those who care for the horses at least as comfortable as the horses.

Racing stables, breeding stables, stables for twenty and thirty horses, are subjects in themselves, although the principles outlined here must of necessity obtain in a good stable of whatever size and for whatever purpose. There are two stables, that I have seen, and probably others, where money has waved experience to one side, and insisted upon this or that, where a pliant architect has obeyed, and they are both useless. There is such a thing—it was discovered in these cases—as having a stable too big, and of attempting to house too many horses under one roof.