174 



MODERN HORSE MANAGEMENT 



[CHAP. 



Hence this person was more or less answerable 

 for thousands of horses being docked. 



686. If people refuse to buy, or drive, or 

 ride docked horses, dealers will cease to dock 

 them. Such harmful fashions teach cruel ideas 

 to the young and have a hardening effect which 

 goes far to ruin naturally good dispositions. 



Docking advocates used to say that hunters 

 must be docked, etc., but now they have to 

 change their tune, and urge that hackneys must 

 be docked. 



687. The veterinary profession, I am sorry to 

 say, is not improved by the existence of such 

 cruel fashions. Of course, there are scores of 

 veterinary surgeons who now refuse to dock 

 horses (see Chapter XIV.), but there are others 

 who are not wealthy and who are afraid of 

 losing their practice if they refuse. The 

 veterinary profession is a most noble one, and 

 I am thankful to say that there are many in it 

 who do not countenance the custom of docking 

 and, indeed, do all that lies in their power to 

 assist in the restriction of the practice. 



If the veterinary colleges, however, were more 

 strict in granting certificates, there would be 

 fewer of the type of man who does no credit 

 to his profession. A great number of vets, have 

 openly denounced docking in the Canadian and 

 United States Press, and many have declared that 

 they have abandoned it for ever. The Ottawa 

 papers said a few years ago, " The capital is 

 proud to boast of the fact that three of its lead- 

 ing veterinary surgeons have openly declared in 

 the Press that they will not perform the un- 

 necessary operation of docking horses any 

 more." 



In many parts of the States a good tail adds 

 twenty dollars to the value of a horse. I have 

 known of several Americans who have offered 

 $500 extra for a good English hackney with 

 a tail. 



For a long while the docked horse in France 

 was known as the English horse ; so the bob- 

 tail horse to-day is known as the Englishman's 

 horse in many parts of the United States and 

 Canada. 



688. Dr. Fleming said that horse shows 

 might be largely instrumental in abolishing 

 docking by refusing to admit docked horses, or, 

 at any rate, not awarding them prizes. 



Shortly before his death this great surgeon, 

 while chief veterinary of the British Army, said 

 in a public speech: "Thus, you see, there is 

 not only the pain at the time, and for a long 

 time afterwards, but the operation deprives the 

 animal of its most important defence against 

 insects." 



The Press in Canada and the United States 

 has done a great deal of good in denouncing 

 this cruelty. In England, I am sorry to say, the 

 Press is much slower in taking the matter up. 

 I hope, however, that when it does take it up 



it will do so thoroughly. But it must not be 

 supposed that every British newspaper is silent 

 on the subject. We shall presently see that 

 powerful protests have emanated from this 

 source, and who can doubt but that more shall 

 follow? 



689. Our Royal Family has set a sufficient 

 example to those who wish to be up to date. 

 Queen Victoria and King Edward both de- 

 nounced the practice, and used their influence 

 against it. Queen Alexandra, as stated above, 

 refused to accept a pair of docked horses, and so, 

 too, as we have seen, did King George. 



Dr. Rutherford, V.D.G., of the Dominion of 

 Canada, said to me: "The majority of horses 

 look much better undocked, and the practice is, 

 after all, only a fashion or fad which can be 

 abolished without injury to anyone. Not only 

 is the operation painful, but the subsequent 

 annoyance and irritation to which docked horses 

 are subjected in the summer-time from flies, 

 etc., especially when at pasture, is in itself a 

 sufficient argument against the practice." This 

 was published by his request all over Canada 

 and in other countries. 



Mr. Basil Tozer, in the Daily Graphic, in 

 June, 1912, at the conclusion of an interesting 

 article on the International Horse Show, said : 

 "In spite of all that has been said and written 

 by Walter Winans and by other men whose 

 opinions command attention against the ridi- 

 culous fashion of amputating horses' tails and 

 then singeing the stumps until they look like 

 hat-pegs, advocates of the so-called docking are 

 to be seen daily at Olympia. Half a dozen well- 

 known sportsmen, in a box close to the royal box 

 on Tuesday night, were discussing this very 

 point, and the opinion they all expressed was 

 that animals with their tails chopped off, as are 

 the tails of Kitty, Why Not, Pat, and a dozen 

 others, ought, ipso facto, to be disqualified." 



A leading article in the Daily Graphic said : 

 " Not until the horse-owning public insists on 

 purchasing undocked animals will the practice 

 be stopped. The subsequent torture endured by 

 docked horses in the fly season should be suf- 

 ficient to stop it. Why the stumpy tail should 

 be thought smart it is difficult to realise. It is 

 sincerely to be hoped that other societies will 

 follow the splendid example of the Hunters Im- 

 provement Society." 



The Cavalry Journal stated : " So persistent is 

 mutilation that some have to make a mental 

 endeavour to prefer whole tails like that on the 

 King's horse to the stunted, useless, indecent, 

 inartistic things like that on the German Em- 

 peror's horse. The adjective 'smart' is akin to 

 the German schmerz, i.e. pain. Smart may 

 certainly be used of docked horses likely to suffer 

 fly persecution in stable and paddock for twenty 

 years following the initial pain. Think of 

 twenty years of pin-pricks. It is the rein danger 



