76 THE HORSE 



Though the fashion of docking appears to be waning, 

 another thoughtlesss one is still in vogue, though fortunately 

 the animal suffers no pain, nor any permanent injury, 

 through having its mane removed, or "hogged." While 

 an artist, and Nature, dehght in flowing lines, it is a 

 curious trait in so-called civilised peoples that the mass of 

 them seem to lose all artistic instinct, so prominent amongst 

 savages in general, and rejoice in crude colours and rigid 

 straight lines. This accords with their notions of smart- 

 ness, and to this everything must be subservient, whether 

 suitable or not. Cutting all the hair off the mane, and 

 leaving a bare straight line instead of a picturesque flowing 

 one, just accords with their ideas, and they never stop to 

 think whether Nature had any especial reason for decorating 

 the upper part of the neck with long hair. It does not 

 occur to them that this covering was intended as a thatch, 

 to ward off the powerful rays of the sun from the vertebrae 

 of the neck, and to keep the rain from lodging there, and 

 much discomfort is caused to hog-maned horses from the 

 wet soaking down to the roots of the clipped hair, instead 

 of running harmlessly off as it would otherwise do. If 

 moorland ponies were treated in such barbarous ways, they 

 would soon succumb to the vicissitudes of weather they are 

 constantly exposed to, which they now defy, owing to their 

 shaggy manes and tails. 



If the broad lines Nature has laid down are intelhgently 

 followed it would be a gain in comfort to the animals and 

 also to the artistic eye. Tails and manes may be trimmed, 

 without doing away with them altogether. The old rule 

 used to be that a hunter's tail should just reach the bottom 

 of the thigh, in a state of rest. It is then short enough to 

 be well out of the mud, while it is long enough to look 

 handsome, if only the upper hairs are left intact ; but a thin 

 rope-like tail is a positive eyesore. A mane may be thinned 

 judiciously, and curtailed in length, but plenty should be 

 left ; and it has its uses too in helping the rider to mount, 

 while many a fall is saved by him, in bad scrambles, when 

 enough mane has been left to catch hold of in an 

 emergency. 



