438 NICKING. 



Powdered resin sprinkled on the stump, or indeed any other application, is 

 worse than useless. It causes unnecessary irritation, and sometimes extensive 

 ulceration ; but if the simple iron is moderately applied, the horse may go to 

 work immediately after the operation, and no dressing will be afterwards 

 required. If a slight bleeding should occur after the cautery, it is much better 

 to let it alone than to run the risk of inflammation or locked-jaw, by re-apply- 

 ing the iron with greater severity. 



Some farmers dock their colts a few days after they are dropped. This 

 is a commendable custom on the score of humanity. No colt was ever lost 

 by it ; and neither the growth of the hair, nor the beauty of the tail, is in the 

 least impaired. 



NICKING. 



This barbarous operation was once sanctioned by fashion, and the breeder and 

 the dealer even now are sometimes tempted to inflict the torture of it in order 

 to obtain a ready sale for their colts. It is not, however, practised to the extent 

 that it used to be, nor attended by so many circumstances of cruelty. 



We must here introduce a small portion of the anatomy of the horse, which 

 we had reserved for this place. The eighteen dorsal vertebrae or bones of the 

 back (see d, p. 221), and the five lumbar vertebrae or bones of the loins (^ 

 p. 221), have already been described. The continuation of the spine consists 

 of the sacrum, composed of five bones (A, p. 221), which, although separate in 

 the colt, are in the full-grown horse united into one mass. The bones of the 

 jlium, the upper and side portion of the haunch, articulate strongly with the 

 sacrum, forming a bony union rather than a joint. The spinal marrow and the 

 blood-vessels here generally begin to diminish, and numerous branches of nerves 

 are given out, which, joined by some from the vertebrae of the loins, form the 

 nervous apparatus of the hind-legs. 



The bones of the tail (, p. 221) are a continuation of those of the sacrum. 

 They are fifteen in number, gradually diminishing in size, and losing altogether 

 the character of the spinal vertebrae. Prolongations of the spinal marrow run 

 through the whole of them, and likewise some arterial vessels, which are a 

 continuation of those which supply the sacrum. Much attention is paid by 

 pei-sons who are acquainted with the true form of the horse to this continuation 

 of the sacral and tail-bones. From the loins to the setting on of the tail the 

 line should be nearly straight, or inclining only a slight degree downward. 

 There is not a surer test of the breed of the horse than this straight line from 

 the loins to the tail ; nor, as was shown when the muscles of the quarters were 

 described, is there any circumstance so much connected with the mechanical 

 advantage with which these muscles act. 



The tail seems to be designed to perfect the beauty of the horse's form. 

 There are three sets of muscles belonging to the tail the erector coccygis, 

 situated on the superior and lateral part of it, and by the action of which (rf, p. 

 356) the tail may be both elevated and drawn on one side the depressor coccygis, 

 on the inferior and lateral part of it, by the action of which the tail may be 

 both lowered and drawn on one side and the curvator coccygis^ by the action 

 of which the tail may be curved or flexed on either side. The depressor and 

 lateral muscles are more powerful than the erector ones, and when the horse 

 is undisturbed, the tail is bent down close on the buttocks ; but when he is ex- 

 cited, and particularly when he is at speed, the erector muscles are called into 

 action, the tail is elevated, and there is an appearance of energy and spirit which 

 adds materially to his beauty. To perpetuate this, the operation of nicking was 

 contrived. The depressor muscles and part of the lateral ones are cut through, 

 and the erector muscles, left without any antagonists, keep the tail in a position 



