POSTERIOR EXTREMITY. 169 



called badly attached, or badly carried. Often in very energetic horses, 

 during work, it is concave superiorly, and even retro verted forward, 

 which is expressed by saying that it is of trumpet form. Some persons 

 call it rabbit's tail, planted as in an apple, when it originates almost 

 horizontally from a very oblique croup. 



It is easy to understand that its attachment and its carriage depend 

 upon the direction of the croup. When the latter is horizontal, the 

 animal carries this organ with elegance ; with an oblique croup, on the 

 contrary, the tail is poorly sustained, being applied against the buttock. 



According to its good or its vicious position, admirers of horses 

 draw, in a manner entirely empirical, an accurate conclusion as to the 

 energy and -vigor of the animal. The explanation of this opinion is 

 found in the fact that when the elevator muscles are well developed 

 and have a dominant action over the depressors, it is an excellent sign 

 in subjects whose general muscular system is strongly developed. As 

 horses of the finer races have the sacrum rectilinear from before to 

 behind, whilst those of the common races have it usually convex in the 

 same direction ; as, besides, this direction of the bone has an influence 

 upon that of the croup, and, therefore, upon the carriage of the tail, 

 we must guard ourselves against forming the conclusion that the beau- 

 tiful attitude of the latter is in all cases the expression of great energy. 



Formerly, dealers and owners frequently attempted to remedy the 

 ungraceful carriage of the tail by excising a part of the depressor 

 muscles so as to allow the elevators their full degree of action ; this 

 procedure was simplified by amputating a more or less considerable 

 portion of the stump. This was the operation on the tail after the 

 English fashion ; the animal which had undergone this operation was 

 said to be docked in the English style ; it gave him a certain degree of 

 distinction. Cutting the depressor muscles alone, the stump being 

 spared, was called nicking ; the horse was then nicked. 



This custom is very old, for Hartmann 1 reports that the council 

 of Calchyd, meeting in England towards the end of the eighth cen- 

 tury, prohibited the practice of thus docking horses, on the ground 

 that it was a barbarous custom. 2 There is no doubt that from this 

 usage was derived the nickname Caudati, which w r as given to the Eng- 

 lish in the thirteenth century. 3 The procedure did not long prevail in 

 England before it passed into Germany. 4 



1 Hartmann, Trait des haras, p. 274. 



2 Journal de Paris, ann6e 1787, Nos. 201 and 216. 

 8 Dufresne, Glossar, word " Caudati." 



* Neue Kriegsbibliothsk, Breslau, 1771, 8vo, 6th part. 



