68 THE HORSE 



hundred, that horses^ ears were cropped, but we can- 

 not imagine that cropping will ever be revived; and of 

 the two practices docking is the more cruel because, 

 although the pain of the operation may possibly be less, 

 the after effects are far worse. 



Docking has actually been defended on the ground, 

 absurd as it may seem to the reader, that the dock- 

 tailed horse cannot get his tail over the reins, and is 

 therefore safer in harness than the long-tailed horse. 

 Now, in the first place, this particular trick or vice is 

 extremely rare : in the second place, it is easier instead 

 of harder for the dock-tailed horse to catch the rein 

 under his tail, and, thirdly, a horse that has been sub- 

 jected to the painful process of docking is apt to be 

 nervous about his hind parts, and therefore more 

 likely to put his tail over the rein, or to kick, than is 

 the unmutilated horse. Walter Winans, a horse-owner 

 and expert of international reputation, says : 



I consider docking as not only cruel but ugly, and also dan- 

 gerous, as a docked horse is always nervous about his hind- 

 quarters being touched, or the reins touching his tail, or his tail 



touching the dashboard In the United States it is worse 



than in England. In England riding horses and hunters at 

 least are spared being made ridiculous by docking, but in the 

 United States even ladies ride about on mutilated horses with 

 tails like hat pegs. 



He might have said also that the practice of dock- 

 ing is much more cruel in America than in England 

 because the flies here are far more numerous and more 

 ferocious than the British fly. 



Docking is a matter of fashion, and fashion always 



