CHECKING AND BLINDERS. 



Cropping aud Docking. — In accordance with these ridiculous 

 notions, introduced, perhaps, by some titled fool, it was the 

 custom in England, about forty years ago, to crop horses' ears 

 and manes, illustrations of which are given from an old English 

 work, showing the method of doing it. Thirty years ago, in 

 this country, it was common in every neighborhood to see 

 horses with their tails "cut off and nicked," which required 

 their standing for weeks. in the stable with the tail drawn up 

 with pulleys, and this even at the risk (which often occurred) 

 of so much inflammation setting in as to cause the falling out 

 of the hair of the tail, or of producing tetanus and the loss of 



Fig. 304. — The head as usually drawn up with the overdraw check. 



the horse, which was not infrequent. This was carried to such 

 an extreme by many, that it became the point of ambition of 

 the professional dealer to have a horse with the shortest and 

 most elevated tail, with a short tuft of hair hanging to it. To 

 show that this is true, I give an illustration of such, copied 

 from the English work before named. This custom, absurd as 

 it may seem, was as common about a generation ago as the 

 overdraw check is now. 



