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.