DOCKING. 469 



is heavy and bushy. When ignorant grooms are allowed 

 to try their hand at trimming a tail, they give an optical 

 proof of the one idea their heads are capable of holding in 

 regard to tail trimming, namely, that almost all the hair is to 

 be cut off. Being bunglers, they heedlessly cut away, first at 

 one side and then at the other, until the hair has been cut to 

 the bone. For protecting the tails of horses that are being 

 shipped or forwarded to horse shows a covering of leather 

 is used. (See Fig. 221.) 



DOCKING. 



The first improvement or disfigurement, as the reader 

 may consider it, that the average carriage or saddle horse 

 undergoes is the cutting of the tail. The operator who 

 merely "squares off" the tail destroys the natural beauty 

 without giving it new character, and having no conception 

 of the need of corresponding comeliness in other parts, rests 

 satisfied. If the reader is opposed to the operation or to 

 the use of docked horses he is advised to avoid a compro- 

 mise. A short tail gives a horse a smart, natty appearance ; 

 the long tail, if well formed and carried, completes the grace- 

 ful outlines of the horse's body ; but a " banged " tail destroys 

 both effects, and in addition to looking like a meal bag tied 

 to the horse's rump, or a feather duster if carried high, pos- 

 sesses many of the objectionable features of both extremes. 



Horses which are much longer in the body than they 

 are high at the withers do not look well with short tails, 

 and it is therefore wise to take the conformation and action 

 into consideration before irrevocably committing a horse to 

 a short-tailed existence. Only experienced eyes can pre- 

 conceive the effect that would be produced by cutting and 



