Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-12-14
Hints Oh Stable Management.

Prof. Pritchard, of the Royal Veteri-
nary College (EnglanO, recently deliv-
cred lecture on stable management, a
report Of which appeared in the Mark
Lane Erp,ess. Some points therein laid
down are worthy of the attention of
horsemen everywhere:
The Professor said he had two objects
in view in giving this lecture. One arose
out Of the fact that horses are often
treated badly, both in and out of the
stable, through want of knowledge, or
neglect on the part of their owners, and
he might be the means Of some informa-
ton being conveyed to such owners.
Any one acquainted with horses must
be aware that to keep them in good con-
dition and secure their best services for
the longest period, attention must be
paid to stable management. The first
question he would ask was: Are horses
better in boxes or stables? Provided
they had plenty of room, he held that
nothing could be better than a good
loose box, in which the horse has an OPP
portunity of moving about and thus get
ting beneficial exercise. Assuming box
es to be the best, he would point out a
few principles to be regarded in prepar-
ing these boxes, viz, to secure good ven
tilatiOn, even temperature, good drain
age and good light. A loose box should
be of good height, and at least 10 feet
long by 6 wide; he would recommend a
length of IA feet and width of IL feet.
The best stables at the college are 16
feet high. He did not say this was nec-
essary, but recommends to be as high as
practical AS to the material, he recon-
mended the use of stone, if it could be
obtained, with foundations of concrete,
or with slate between the first few
courses, if built of brick. He also rec
commended the lining of walls with wood
inside. AS to flooring, it must be of
such nature as not to absorb moisture,
nor to be slippery. He had seen moth
ing better than ordinary bricks carefully
laid edgeways, care being taken to select
good bricks. These will never become
slippery, nor absorb any great amount of
urine.
Having built the stable, he now had
to touch on the ventilation. There
should be an ingress of fresh air and
egress of the air poisoned by the breath
ing of the horses. This must be secured
without draught, and to do this there
are some very elaborate contrivances,
but his own experience taught him that
they were unnecessary, and that tubes
might be easily arranged between the
ingress openings near the ground and
the egress openings near the roof. With
regard to drainage, the system usually
used is one of underground drainage,
the floor of the stable slanting from all
sides to the grating in the center, or
movable plates are used, or similar de-
vices. But he held that there was no
necessity for this undertaking. He
would simply lay piece of iron or
stone with groove, by which the larg-
est stable might be properly drained.
At the college they have drainage of all
Of these kinds, and in those having the
surface drainage their state is always
far the best. With regard to tempera-
ture, he did not wish to say MUCH be-
yond this-that he would, if possible,
keep it as near as possible to Sc or 60
degrees Fahrenheit all the year round.
He then came to the subject of lighting
1t was well known that ponies and
horses kept in coal mines would go com
pletely blind, and from this he argued
that horses kept in dark stables would
be liable to have their visionary organs
seriously affected. 1t might be said
that dealers commonly kept their horses
in low medium of light. There might
DC reasons for this. A horse kept in a
lark place would show better action
on being brought from his stable into
the air, and he believed it was a fact
that horses so kept would look better in
their coats.
On the subject of feeding, he recomA
nended the best food, and regularity in
feeding. Ordinary horses should be fed
three times day. A little hay should
De given to the horse to amuse himself
with during the cleaning out of the sta
DE, and he should then have his water
,ffered to him, but he would certainly
not allow him to have anything like a
neal before giving him the water. He
would have about peck of corn, with a
small quantity of cut hay and little
oran, divided into three or at most four
feeds, for the day. He did not believe
IN the necessity for crushing oats, the
horse, in proper condition, having splen-
did masticating organs. But in dealing
With horses in state of disease, or in
the habit of boiling their food, he would
advocate the crushing. AS to bedding,
nothing could be better than straw,
which should be thick in those places
where the animal might injure his
houghs. In case of horse having a
habit of much paving, sawdust might be
used in front of him; indeed, sawdust
night be used generally, but not in
those stables which have underground
drainage.
He would impress on his hearers the
fact that horses must be groomed to
keep them healthy, as well as to make
them look well. With regard to groom
ing horses legs, he believed that with
care in this particular there need not be
fever or cracked heels to the extent now
found Instead Of bringing the horse in
when coated with mud and sluicing him
with cold water, or even tepid water, he
would have the mud wiped or scraped
off as far as practicable and then wrap
the legs round till they dried He be-
lieved hundreds and thousands of cases
of mud fever might be prevented if this
plan were used instead Of the system of
throwing water over them, or excessive
washing. He should only speak of ban
dages on the subject of clothing, consid-
ering wooden bandages to be of great use
to the legs. He had proved this in the
case of horses in his own possession;
the use of bandages having entirely re-
moved .windgalls as big as hens eggs.
He advocated the use Of leather soles
for horses working on hard SOIL or in
the event of their not being used, he rec
commended that the feet should be dress
ed with some softening mixture. He
strongly recommended that horses, when
not hard worked, should have proper ex-