'HANDS' AND OTHER MATTERS 131 



I believe that if a horse does He down under 

 the pains of coUc, the chances of his twisting his 

 intestines are so remote they may be disregarded. 

 But still the custom prevails, and is the cause of 

 a great deal of unnecessary hardship to horses. 

 I know that if a human being has pains in his 

 stomach he lies down at once, and would be very 

 much annoyed if some one were to come and 

 parade him up and down his room. And if we 

 treat horses as we do ourselves in all matters of 

 management, we shall never be far wrong, and I 

 appeal to our veterinary surgeons to assist us in 

 correcting this practice. It may be necessary 

 sometimes to take the horse away from a stall 

 where he might get hung up, but where this has 

 to be done, he should be led to the nearest grass 

 spot, and be allowed to lie there as long as he 

 chooses. 



Tails 



In a civilized country such as ours, it is 

 lamentable that the cruel and senseless practice 

 of docking horses' tails should be as prevalent as 

 it is. That it is cruel is too obvious to need com- 

 ment. Every one who orders a horse's tail to be 

 docked must know that he is not only inflicting 

 terrible pain, but also that he is depriving the 

 animal he affects to care for of its only means 

 of protection against that pest of flies which worry 

 the imfortunate animal throughout all the summer 



