190 FARRIEKY, ETC. 



blj to bis sides, there might be some excuse for cutting it 

 off, within a fevv' inches of his body, or for separating the 

 muscles i\t its sides to lessen this power ; but, that this is 

 not the case, must be acknowledged by all who have seen 

 how a horse, -whose tail has been abridged by '' Docking," 

 or weakened by nicking, is annoyed by flies. 



If a horse have a trick of throwing dirt on his rider's 

 clothing, this may be prevented by cutting off the hair of 

 the tail, below the end of the bones, as is the custom with 

 hunters in England, where the hair is cut squarely off 

 about eight or ten inches above the hocks. 



Ko apology is offered for not giving in this work a de- 

 scription of these two operations ; they are so barbarous 

 and so senseless, that they are going very rapidly out of 

 fashion, and it is to be hoped that they will ere long, have 

 become obsolete, as has the cropping of the ears, formerly 

 so common in England. 



A more humane way of setting up the horse's tail, to 

 give him a more stylish appearance, is by simply weighting 

 it for a few hours each day, in the stall, until it attains the 

 desired elevation. This is done by having two pulleys at 

 the top of the stall, one at each side, through which are 

 passed two ropes, which come together and are fastened to 

 the tail, the ropes having at their other ends weights (bags of 

 sand or of shot are very good for the purpose), which must 

 be light at first, and may be increased from day to day. 

 The weighting should be continued until the tail has taken 

 a permanent position as desired. It is true that this method 

 requires a somewhat longer time than' that of cutting the 

 muscles, but while it is being done the horse is never off 

 his work, and he suffers infinitely less pain. 



The method of nicking or pricking, as usually performed 

 in this country, is not quite so cruel nor so hazardous as 



