168 



MODERN HORSE MANAGEMENT 



[CHAP. 



are in intense fear or left alone by other horses. 

 I have seen horses in grave accidents have large 

 gashes torn in them, and yet to the ordinary 

 individual they have probably shown little signs 

 of pain, but to the trained eye there was quite 

 a different story. The horse's eye should be 

 watched when the raw end of the stump of a 

 tail is seared and seared again with a red-hot 

 iron. The operation, in brief, usually consists 

 in taking up the hair above the joint of incision 

 and clipping off a ring of hair around the joint. 

 The docking instrument is then placed around 

 the joint, midway between two vertebrae, and 

 the dock chopped off. The stump is grasped and 

 seared over with resin and a red-hot iron until 

 all bleeding is arrested. This sometimes takes 

 as long as twenty seconds. 



A horse does not feel so much the severing of 

 the tail, because it is done very quickly if done 

 properly; but, here again, how often is it done 

 properly? In many cases the tail is chopped off 

 with an axe or with a large knife. The horse 

 does, however, suffer pain from the hot iron. 

 Some show intense pain, others not so much. 

 It is an extraordinary thing that horses seldom 

 kick or fight in self-defence when being so 

 mutilated. I think this is due partly to their 

 utter surprise at finding their tail ruthlessly 

 taken away from them, and partly to their prob- 

 ably being in such fear that they remain more or 

 less motionless. 



People who say that horses are nowadays 

 docked humanely are mistaken. In the first 

 place, they may refer to one in a thousand cases, 

 but certainly no more ; and, secondly, even if the 

 majority of the operations were properly per- 

 formed, this would not affect the practices that I 

 have seen in the remote parts of cities. 



In all likelihood these people do not know, 

 nor do they care, whether such things are done 

 humanely or otherwise, but what they look for 

 is an excuse that will make them appear to 

 others less indifferent than they are. The average 

 man that docks a horse seems to care little what 

 method he uses or how much pain the horse 

 suffers. He considers his own pleasure before 

 anything else, though in some cases it may be 

 granted that the evil is wrought for want of 

 thought. It takes several weeks, and sometimes 

 months, for the end of the dock to heal up 

 properly. The wound gradually heals, and the 

 roasted portion dies and drops off. A tail that 

 has once been docked, however slightly, will not 

 grow hair at the tip, but an undocked tail will 

 always have hairs growing from the actual 

 end. 



If the tail is not properly seared over, the 

 haemorrhage may recommence, and the red-hot 

 iron will have to be used again. An English 

 farmer once told me that he sent his horses out 

 to plough after having docked them ; and some- 

 times the bleeding would commence again, 



whereupon he had to have them brought in, and 

 the red-hot iron used again. 



P. 106 is a drawing that I have made from 

 an actual stump that had been previously seared 

 over with a red-hot iron. This horse was docked 

 merely because it was going to be exhibited at 

 a show. 



Some advocate using chloroform for docking, 

 but I do not think that this will in any way 

 relieve the horse of much pain, because, firstly, 

 a horse struggles against the chloroform, and, 

 secondly, the after-pain from the burn is in no 

 way lessened. 



The bleeding is sometimes arrested by tying 

 a cord tightly around the tail above the point of 

 incision, but the portion below the string will 

 eventually die and drop off. The tight string 

 causes pain. 



661. The After-Effects of Docking. There is 

 always a danger that trouble may follow the 

 operation. Hundreds of cases of lockjaw 

 (tetanus) have resulted in the past from this 

 needless operation. Gangrene has also been a 

 very common sequel. When either of these sets 

 in, as a last hope the stump is redocked, so that 

 in some cases the horse has practically no tail 

 at all, but somewhat resembles a Manx cat. As 

 for fly defence, it has none. P. i20d shows a 

 pony that was docked by a vet. ; gangrene set 

 in, and, to save its life, it was redocked. The 

 number of kickers that have been produced by 

 this brutal fashion is inconceivable. Scores of 

 horses have been made to fear burning coals, 

 red-hot irons, the smell of roasting meat, hot 

 oil, steam engines, sight of fire, etc., owing to 

 the intense fear they experienced at the time 

 that they were docked. 



A Percheron horse in Kent was docked when 

 it changed hands because its new owner thought 

 that it would look smart. The vet. made a 

 hopeless muddle of the operation, and the poor 

 horse got blood poisoning, and remained in a 

 critical condition for several weeks. At the end 

 of this time it was redocked, and now it has to 

 wear a false tail to be shown in the show ring. 

 I have heard of several horses bleeding to death 

 after the operation. If I attempted to give 

 details of a number of horses that have been 

 ruined in various ways by being docked, I 

 should fill a large volume. I remember a very 

 fine hunter, some few years ago, being so much 

 weakened in the back by the operation that 

 for ever afterwards it was of no use for jump- 

 ing. It took a long time to convince its short- 

 sighted owner of the cause of the horse's failure. 



Those who wish to read up this subject in 

 detail should procure from the R.S.P.C.A., 105 

 Jermyn Street, London, "The Wanton Mutila- 

 tion of Animals," by the late Dr. Fleming, C.B., 

 LL.D., F.R.C.V.S., etc. (Is. 6d.). He was 

 formerly the chief veterinarian of the British 

 Army, and the author of at least a dozen 



