PLATE XV.—STABLE PLAN
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.