STUD BOOK. 79 



which the animal suffers in having his vertebral column cut 

 through, and with it the medullary substance and the spinal 

 cord, is the most intense which one brute can inflict on an- 

 other, even though the inflictor of the pain be the brutal 

 owner of a horse. The only defence which was ever put 

 forth in alleviation of so barbarous a cruelty is, that the 

 horse shall carry his tail like an Arabian, as though the sight- 

 less and indelicate stump, sticking out of the hindquarters of 

 a docked horse, was anything but a ridiculous caricature of 

 the caudal appendage of the Asiatic horse. 



But the cruelty of docking a horse or nicking him does 

 not end with the infliction. The tail is given to the horse by 

 the same Providence which made him, for the twofold pur- 

 pose of protecting a tender part against cold in winter and 

 to lash off the flies and other insects which torment him in 

 summer. Both these ends, necessary to the comfort and even 

 health of the horse, are frustrated by a half-witted ignoramus, 

 who believes that he can mend the works of the horse's 

 Maker. To make the tail of the animal more useful than it 

 was intended by Providence to be, he renders what his barbar- 

 ity has left of it altogether without motion of any kind. 



A very little observation on the habits of the horse would 

 have shown the folly as well as cruelty of such a practice. 

 There are few portions of a horse's body which he cannot 

 reach with his teeth or his tail, the latter being in this re- 

 spect a hand to him. But if a horse itch in any part which 

 he cannot reach, he will go to another horse, and bite him on 

 the part which he himself wants bitten. His friend will take 

 the hint and perform the kind office for him. This should 

 hence show the necessity of not depriving the animal of those 

 portions of his body by which he can free himself from 

 annoyance. 



