164 



MODERN HORSE MANAGEMENT 



[chap. 



eyes from the strong sun. They are made of 

 leather or string ; the latter keeps softer. If 

 leather is used, it must be kept quite soft by 

 continually being well greased. An eye fringe 

 can be either sewn on to the bridle, or hooked or 

 buttoned on, or it may be, as in P. 104rf, a 

 separate brow-band. 



644. Ply Whisks.— P. 104rf shows a horsehair 

 fly whisk which is often carried by a rider in 

 the fly season in a country where the flies are 

 bad. They save horse and rider considerably. 

 They can be purchased for a small sum, either 

 black or white, or one can be made from the 

 hair of a dead horse's tail. 



645. Fly Papers.— These should be of the 

 sticky, reel variety, which are far superior to the 

 poison papers or to the sticky papers. A large 

 number of reels should be hung in every stable. 

 The most suitable type consists of about one yard 

 of sticky paper, an inch in width, that is hung 

 up to the ceiling and unrolled from its reel. Fly 

 screens should be used on every window and 

 door. {See Sec. 366.) 



Nicking Tails 



646. The vulgar expression "nicking" refers 

 to the dividing of the depressor, and perhaps 

 compressor, muscles of the tail, which, of 

 course, should be done under an anaesthetic. 

 Nicking was originally performed, and is to-day 

 chiefly done, for one reason, fashion — to make 

 the horse carry its tail higher. Most of the 

 horses that are nicked to-day are the docked 

 or hat-pegged variety (P. 105), in which case 

 the underside of the tail is cut across in several 

 places, and the tail tied up, or even over the 

 back, for perhaps a week. The inhuman type 

 of man that practises this is, fortunately, not 

 common. Hackney admirers have a singular 

 desire for such specimens of horses as are shown 

 in P. 105, 112^, 113. The operation, when done 

 merely for fashion, of course, is illegal. Horse 

 shows are responsible for a great many of these 

 tails. I cannot understand how the law allows 

 such horses to win prizes, or even to enter the ring. 



This form of nicking might truly be called 

 cruel ; a local anaesthetic is seldom used. But 

 it must be remembered that after the operation 

 is over, the horse has not lost one of its members, 

 as it has when it loses its tail. I mean that it 

 is none the worse, so that the nicking operation 

 can scarcely be compared with that of docking. 

 I have often been surprised to see that writers, 

 not necessarily authorities, have declared that 

 nicking is more cruel than docking. They 

 evidently merely consider the operation. Even 

 so, to have two or three cuts made in one's finger, 

 or to have the finger chopped right off, and the 

 stump seared with a red-hot iron, could scarcely 

 be compared with one another. The chief point 

 is the loss of the tail in the operation of docking. 

 A tail to a horse in the fly season is a great deal 



more important than a finger to a man. Some 

 say that nearly all the long, flowing tails we see 

 in the show ring have been nicked. This is quite 

 wrong ; as a matter of fact, I find that extremely 

 few have been. 



647. The operation for nicking a long-tailed 

 horse, as described below, is nothing like as 

 painful as that for producing the " hat peg " in 

 P. 113. Only those long tails that are carried 

 tightly on the quarters are nicked, and these are 

 uncommon with well-bred horses. If docking 

 became extinct, nicking would be decreased by 

 from 80 to 90 per cent. 



Dividing the Depressor Muscles 



648. I object to the term nicking. As stated 

 above, this operation is performed sometimes on 

 horses that carry their tails down tightly, gener- 

 ally due to coarse breeding. If the operation is 

 done only for this it is illegal, although it may 

 be done without any pain, providing a local 

 anaesthetic is used. There is, however, one 

 occasion on which the operation can be per- 

 formed perfectly legally, and that is when a 

 horse grabs hold of the reins, and then endangers 

 those driving behind as well as itself. 



Nicking in this case is performed, not for 

 fashion, but to better the horse, lessen the 

 liability of its being docked afterwards, and, in 

 fact, make it perfectly safe to drive under all 

 conditions. I have described in Chapter VI., 

 Sec. 270, the correct way of training a horse to 

 harness so that it will not object to the reins 

 being held under its tail while going along. This 

 subject is also dealt with in detail in Chapter 

 XIII. Fear or nervousness causes 99 per cent, of 

 those who grab the reins to do so. There are, 

 however, a very few who will maliciously grab 

 the reins if they can ; these should be nicked, as 

 described below, for their own good. Ticklish 

 mares sometimes have this habit. 



My friend, Professor Fowler, one of the lead- 

 ing authorities on comparative anatomy on the 

 North American continent, says : " A sure way 

 of making horses safe that have acquired a bad 

 habit of grabbing hold of the reins is the per- 

 formance of a slight operation on the depressor 

 muscles of the tail. This is not cruel ; it is 

 done for the horse's good, and not for any silly 

 fashion. It is soon over, and afterwards the 

 horse is the better for it." 



649. The operation is performer! thus : A 

 drachm of 5 per cent, cocaine hydrochloride {see 

 Chapter XVI.) is injected on each side of the tail 

 near the root of the dock. In fifteen minutes 

 the tail is raised, and one or two transverse cuts 

 made across each of the depressor muscles on 

 each side of the median line close to the root of 

 the dock. There will be no feeling in the tail. 

 The open wounds are then plugged up lightly 

 with wet antiseptic cotton-wool, and the tail 

 wrapped in oil sheeting to keep the wool from 



