22 HORSES FOR LADIES. 



be used for racing, steeplechasing or hunting, and it is 

 a monstrous thing to mutilate unfortunate half-breds, 

 especially mares, and condemn them to be tortured by 

 flies, and to have the most sensitive parts of their 

 bodies turned into a safe camping ground for insects, 

 simply because these poor animals have a stain in their 

 pedigree. In summer time, when flies are troublesome, 

 we may often see a long-tailed brood mare at grass 

 protecting both herself and her suckling foal from 

 these irritating pests by the free use of her tail ; but 

 docked mares are deprived of this means of driving 

 away insects, and have been known to unwittingly 

 injure their young by kicking and plunging violently in 

 their efforts to rid themselves of attacking flies. The 

 unfortunate foal is unable to take its natural nourish- 

 ment in peace, and consequently does not thrive so 

 well as does the offspring of an unmutilated mother. 

 One of the feeble arguments set forth in favour of 

 docking is, that it prevents a hunter from soiling the 

 coat of his rider by his tail ; but, as my husband truly 

 says in his new edition of Veterinary Notes for Horse 

 Owners, " This idea is an absurdity, because an un- 

 docked horse cannot reach his rider with his tail, if it is 

 banged short, which is a fact known to all military 

 men. Besides, mud on a hunting coat is ' clean 

 dirt.' " The actual pain caused by the operation 

 is trivial as compared with the life-long misery to 

 which tailless horses are subjected, for we deprive 

 them for ever of their caudal appendage, and the 

 ridiculous stump sticking up where the tail ought 



