CHAP. XIIl] 



CRIME OF DOCKING HORSES 



167 



gone. In Canada it would have to be late in the 

 autumn. Then, again, if a horse's tail is merely 

 banged short, when he is sold as worn out, as 

 he often is, the new owner, who will not take, 

 perhaps, the same care of him, can let the hair 

 grow to its full extent ; but if the horse has been 

 docked, it has to remain a victim of fly torture 

 during the rest of its unhappy days. If, again, 

 it were not docked, the owner could pension it 

 off in a nice pasture to spend the rest of its life 

 in peace. 



Those who employ docking invariably trim 

 their horses' stumps to an absurd degree in the 

 spring, thus depriving them of every little bit of 

 fly protection that wise Nature has provided, in 

 spite of the vet.'s knife. Why don't these over- 

 zealous people leave the hair on the stump until 

 after the fly season? Then, if they wished, they 

 could trim to their hearts' desire during the 

 winter months. 



654. A horse in harness does not require a 

 tail below the hocks, because if it is very long, 

 as in P. 19e, it will not be of any more use 

 than if it were as in P. 36d. In fact, if very 

 long, and the horse is harnessed in close to a 

 two-wheeled cart, as in P. 29^, he would not 

 be able to use it so easily as if it were trimmed 

 out or combed out to reach to the hocks. 



Any observant horseman, of course, knows 

 well the real use of the tail, and it must irritate 

 such a man to sit behind a bobtail horse when 

 the flies are about and to see the wretched 

 animal trying all day in vain to rid itself of flies. 

 The incessant wagging of a docked tail is, I 

 think, most painful to watch. 



655. Other uses of the tail are described in 

 Chapter XII., and are as a means of protection 

 from cold, as a rudder in turning, as an append- 

 age for scratching parts that itch and cannot be 

 reached by the mouth, etc. 



People too commonly argue that a private 

 horse is kept in a well-cared-for stable away 

 from flies, but they misstate the facts. I have 

 never found such a stable yet. Besides, why 

 cannot these horses enjoy pasture in the 

 summer? And why are they generally sold 

 when too old -to work, and perhaps for ten years 

 exposed to flies? The general complaint in 

 livery stables at the end of the fly season, 

 especially in Canada, is that the docked horses 

 are the poorest in condition. 



656. Mr. Terry, in "The Crime of Docking 

 Horses," referring to illustrations of flies, says : 

 " They show the sort of enemy against which the 

 horse has to contend. Mr. Austin, of the Natural 

 History Museum, London, has written, and the 

 department has published, a most sumptuously 

 illustrated and learned work on British blood- 

 sucking flies. No one who has turned over these 

 pages will ever consent to any horse of his being 

 docked, for the awful nature of these flies and 

 their weapons will not soon be forgotten." 



657. A lover of a horse for the horse's sake 

 alone will surely lay aside thoughts of fashion 

 before deciding to involve his noble friend in 

 such an operation and such a loss merely for a 

 trifling difference in appearance from his or her 

 point of view. 



Queen Alexandra set an example for other 

 ladies to follow as regards docked horses, when 

 she refused to accept a pair of docked horses 

 presented to -her by some ladies of Ottawa. It 

 was discovered afterwards that these horses had 

 been docked by a man in Ottawa without the 

 consent of the donors. I had the pleasure of 

 investigating this case. Nothing gave me greater 

 pleasure than when I heard that he had to buy 

 another pair at his own expense and ship them 

 to England. King George also refused to accept 

 a pair of bobtailed horses sent to him as a 

 present from Australia. 



658. A natural tail need not, and should 

 not, be left thick and bushy, because it only 

 tends to make the horse hot and gives extra 

 weight for him to switch around at the flies. 

 A tail should be kept neat and fairly thin at 

 the top, as this will tend to keep the horse cooler. 

 (P. 166.) Some docked horses have a bunch 

 of untidy hair hanging from the stump that 

 keeps them hot, and in many cases the hair is 

 so much in the way that it is insanitary. Un- 

 docked tails will never get bushy like this even 

 if left alone. 



No one can call a bobtail shire or Clyde neat 

 or smart ; in the summer it is very cruel to plait 

 the hair up, and when it is not plaited it is 

 extremely untidy, whilst a natural tail cannot be 

 called untidy. Three summers ago I saw a car- 

 load of Percherons imported from Belgium 

 which were almost tailless. The horse dealer 

 who had bought them told me that he had diffi- 

 culty in selling them, as farmers could not 

 plough in the autumn, when the flies were so 

 bad, because the horses would be kicking at flies 

 all the time. The exporter in Belgium only con- 

 sidered his own pocket when he shipped such 

 horses to Canada, but I do not think he realised 

 the profits he had hoped for. 



659. The polo pony is now allowed its tail. 

 Besides the usual reasons for leaving it long, it 

 is of great use for making quick turns. (P. 62.) 

 The want of knowledge on this point is often 

 explained by the bad horsemanship one so 

 often sees in the polo field. The old argument 

 that the tail gets in the way of the stick has, 

 I think, become exploded. Even if it were 

 so, it would not justify permanent mutilation, 

 as both sides would stand the same chance. 



660. The Operation. Unfortunately, there 

 are some who, after seeing a horse docked, say 

 that the animal does not mind it ; they expose 

 their want of horse knowledge and entire lack 

 of observation. 



Horses do not cry out like dogs, unless they 



