CHAPTER XIII 



THE CRIME OF DOCKING HORSES' TAILS 



651. We live in a civilised country that boasts 

 of its modern civilisation, yet allows the repre- 

 hensible practice of mutilating the horse to 

 exist. There would, to-day, scarcely be any 

 necessity to write against this custom, which 

 was introduced centuries ago by barbarians who 

 knew no better, had the various hackney and 

 heavy draught-horse societies done what it was 

 in their power to do a few years ago, namely, 

 to forbid docked horses from entering the 

 show ring, as did the Hunters Improvement 

 Society. Thanks to this society, the docked 

 hunter is to-day, in every country, practically 

 extinct. 



Field-Marshal H.R.H.the Duke of Connaught, 

 Governor-General of Canada, speaking in Ottawa 

 on this subject, stated: "I think the docking of 

 horses is a relic of barbarism. It is a shame to 

 deprive the horse of the tail God has given it." 

 No doubt these remarks are laughed at by up- 

 holders of docking, but it should be remembered 

 that they come from a horseman of no little 

 knowledge, which cannot always be alleged of 

 the person who sanctions docking. 



652. We will consider the practice systematic- 

 ally in the following order : The use of the tail ; 

 the operation ; the reason for and excuses p"ut 

 forward, namely, cleanliness, strengthening the 

 hindquarters, safety, appearance, neatness, show 

 and fashion. 



653. The Use of the Tail.— This has been 

 described fully in Chapter XII., but, to recapitu- 

 late briefly, its chief use is as a weapon of 

 defence against flies. The panniculus carnosus 

 muscle extends all over the horse's body except 

 the hindquarters, which part is supposed by 

 Nature to be protected by the tail. In between 

 the thighs and the portions of the belly between 

 the stifle joints there is no fly muscle, and the 

 tail is also supposed to reach here. A tail should 

 be long enough to reach nearly to the point of 

 the hip. If the hair is left quite long, this will, 

 of course, drive flies away that have got their 

 lancets in deeply, as is not uncommon at the end 

 of the fly season. 



Just over the root of the tail, where the horse 

 cannot reach, there is a thick fascia that a fly 

 cannot penetrate. It will, therefore, be seen 

 that it is not necessary to leave a horse's tail 

 quite long. When a horse is turned out to 



pasture he requires a tail a little below the hock 

 for comfort, but if it is a little shorter he will 

 be able to rid himself of most flies that the fly 

 muscle will not reach. Any observant person 

 must have noticed how peacefully a long-tailed 

 horse grazes at pasture, compared with a horse 

 with the hair banged near the end of the dock 

 which kicks at the flies that get on the belly 

 between the thighs. Such a horse, of course, 

 will soon have a longer tail, as the hair grows 

 from a natural dock fairly fast. 



Here we come to a most important point 

 which I have impressed upon farmers, through 

 the columns of various papers, over and over 

 again. Dr. Rutherford, formerly Veterinary 

 Director-General of Canada, brought out this 

 point very strongly while talking to me on the 

 subject a short time ago. The point is that if 

 a mare is to be used for breeding purposes it 

 should, so modern veterinary science tells us, be 

 turned out to pasture not only after the foal has 

 been born, but before, as foals born out-of-doors 

 in fine weather, or even in the snow in Alberta, 

 are always better for it, and are not so likely to 

 develop that often fatal disease, navel ill, so 

 common in some districts. 



Now, if a mother is docked, is it humane to 

 turn her out, seeing that the fly season com- 

 mences very soon after the time for foaling — 

 April, May or June? Of course, the practitioner 

 of docking thinks little about this, and if he 

 were to he would say, " They are all right ; the 

 flies won't kill them." In expressing himself 

 he really shows want of true sympathy for the 

 horse. If, however — and here is the point — the 

 mare, or any other horse which is to be turned 

 out to pasture, has not been docked, but has 

 merely had its tail banged (the hair squared off), 

 as in P. 79, or even as short as in P. 29, the 

 hair will soon grow again. It will be a few 

 months before the hair will reach the hocks, and 

 then there will be sufficient protection to reach 

 where the fly muscles will not. If, of course, 

 the horse is going to be used for breeding alto- 

 gether, the tail can be allowed to grow as long 

 as possible. 



Horse owners have a culpable habit of allow- 

 ing their grooms to trim their horses' tails in the 

 spring, i.e. just before the fly season commences, 

 instead of in the autumn, after the flies have 



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