MANE, TAIL AND FORELOCK 67 



belly, to a certain extent, from draughts of cold air 

 coming between the hind legs. The most experienced 

 shipper of horses in the East always insists that when 

 his horses are loaded on the cars at Chicago their tails 

 shall be let down. 



Another benefit of a long tail is that in the case of a 

 cold rain it conducts away from the horse's back to 

 the ground a good deal of water which, in the case of a 

 short-tailed horse, runs down the inside of his hind 

 legs and has a chilling effect. For this reason the tail of 

 a horse should not be tied up in a cold rain storm. It 

 looks neater that way, but the horse is much better off 

 under such circumstances with his long tail, and by 

 putting the tail in a bucket of water when he comes in 

 and then swishing the tail sideways back and forth, 

 the mud and water can easily be removed. 



In warm rains, however, and in fair weather when 

 the roads are muddy, and generally with respect to 

 saddle horses, the tail can be neatly braided and tied 

 up, and when thus disposed it is very becoming to the 

 horse — far more so than is the docked tail. In fact, 

 between a horse with his tail artistically braided and 

 tied and a dock-tailed horse, there is the same differ- 

 ence that exists between a woman with her hair 

 neatly coiled close to her head, and a woman with 

 short hair. 



Docking is a custom so cruel and so absurd that it 

 does not seem as if it could long continue; and there 

 are signs even now that it is ceasing to be fashionable. 

 The feeling against cruelty to animals slowly but surely 

 increases. It was not so many years ago, perhaps a 



