Generally, the safest way of bringing a horse on board is, when practicable, to walk him into the ship by a broad and well-protected gangway, the slope of which should be by no means steep. In this case, the portion of the deck which he has to traverse before arriving at his box or stall should, if possible, be covered by ordinary cocoanut matting or other suitable material, so as to prevent him slipping, which a horse in these circumstances is very liable to do. If cocoanut matting be not available, a layer of cinders will be a fair substitute. The stevedores' men who have helped me on different occasions to walk horses on board, have usually shown a strange liking to fill up inequalities in the horse's path - as, for instance, between the ends of the gangway and the ground or deck - with straw, in order, as they thought, to give the animal confidence to go straight ahead. This practice is certainly founded on a misconception; because, if a horse steps on an inviting surface, and then finds that it concealed a danger, he will generally become alarmed, and will object to again enter into the trap. In all such cases it is best to let a horse see the nature of the obstacles in front of him, so that he may adopt his own method of surmounting or avoiding them. In taking care of himself he requires but little help from us, and no deception.

As slinging a horse with the object of carrying him from one place to another is a somewhat dangerous proceeding, especially during the act of placing him on the deck of a ship, it should be done only when economy of time is of paramount importance, or when a box is not available. A box may be thus used for embarkation, even when it will not be required during the voyage.

The inside measurements of an ordinary horse-box are 7 ft. long and 2 ft. 9 in. wide. This length is sufficient, but the width is at least 3 in. too narrow for a hunter or trooper; because it does not allow enough room for a man to get into the box alongside the horse, in order to arrange his clothing, to pick up a foot, or to perform any other necessary detail. For the conveyance of heavy cart horses, an extra allowance of room should be made. Instead of having a box only just large enough for a horse to stand up in, we might have one sufficiently big (say, 9 ft. by 6 ft.) for the animal to lie down in if he chooses to do so. I have known such an arrangement to be used when taking valuable horses from Australia to India. It proved very beneficial to the health of the animals thus boxed, but the extra expense would not, as a rule, be justified in ordinary cases.

When two or more horses are taken on the upper deck, it is a good plan to have a box made wide enough for one more than the number intended, and to provide movable partitions, so that any particular horse might be given a compartment of double the usual width, as occasion might demand. Thus, for two horses, the interior width would be 9 ft, and for three horses 12 ft. The same principle should, if practicable, be carried out with horses between decks.

A box should be provided with doors at both ends, so that the animal or animals may be able to go in or out of it, whichever way it is turned. It should have massive iron rings, placed in convenient positions so as to enable it to be hoisted over the side by means of a crane; and there should be placed semi-circular iron bars over the top to give it solidity, and to afford support for coverings. In bad weather, water-tight white canvas covers, properly secured, act well. In very hot weather, an awning may be required. Strong iron rings should be let into the deck, to enable the box to be firmly lashed down.

The inside of the box should be thoroughly well padded throughout its entire extent. Straw padding, covered with canvas, as is generally used, proves ineffective; because it soon gets hard and works downwards, and thus leaves the upper portion of the woodwork unprotected. I would strongly advise the employment of large pieces of felt, to be secured by being laced through holes bored in the planking, so as to dispense with the use of nails of any kind, next to the horse.

The feeding trough or manger which is provided with a sea-going horse-box, is generally much too narrow. It should be at least 13 in. deep and 13 in. wide at the top, and the sides should slope towards the centre, so as to help the animal to reach his food.

With respect to the nature of the floor upon which a horse should stand, whether in box or stall, during a sea voyage, we should bear in mind that the two great dangers from which he is liable to suffer are loss of foothold and laminitis. Such risks as those of shipwreck and being washed overboard do not come within the province of this chapter. The famous Blue Gown, Prince Io, Ossory, who was own brother to Ormonde, and scores of other valuable animals have lost their lives from stress of weather during the short passage across the Atlantic. These accidents usually occur from the horse losing his footing, in which case he will probably either get dashed from side to side, until the life is knocked out of him, or he will struggle till he dies, as horses will do when they get down and cannot regain their feet. As a quadruped has a far larger base of support than a biped, he can keep his footing much better on a rocking surface, like the deck of a vessel which is rolling and pitching, provided that his feet do not slip. Yet horses, as a rule, find it far more difficult to keep standing on deck in bad weather than men; because of the small amount of friction that exists between the floor of their box or stall and the ground surface of their feet. The superiority of the four-legged form of support over the two-legged one, is well shown by the ease with which a dog can stand on the deck of a vessel that is rolling in the most desperate manner, because the pads of his feet give him abundance of grip. Therefore, to insure a seagoing horse against the danger in question, we need only place him on a non-slippery surface, as, for instance, thick cocoanut door-matting, into the upstanding fibres of which his feet can sink, and can thus obtain secure foot-hold. I have frequently proved the perfect efficiency of this material during terribly bad weather on voyages with horses between India and England, and also in the North Sea when going to Russia. The best plan for putting down this matting in a box, is to have a piece of it specially made, and to have it a little larger in its width and length than the bottom of the box, so that it could be built up into the sides when the box is being constructed. Then, as long as the box holds together, the matting can not become displaced. If it is not convenient to have a box specially made, we might employ six cocoanut door-mats of the ordinary size (about 3 ft. by 1 1/2 ft.); five to cover the floor, and one extra, so that the rearmost mat can be taken out every day, cleaned and dried, and the others pushed down in daily succession. With a row of stalls between decks, the matting would have to be fixed to the deck. The old plan of putting battens across the floor is worse than useless; because, instead of using the battens as a fixed point for his toes, in the manner intended, a horse will generally place his heels on them, apparently with the hopeless object of digging his toes into the wood beneath, and will thus adopt a position which is well suited to bring on laminitis. Straw is slippery, and consequently should not be employed. Cinders and sand are very inefficient substitutes for rough cocoanut matting; although they are probably the best makeshifts that can be usually found.