96 HORSE-BREEDING FOR FARMERS CHAP. 
to wait till the horse is three years old, and when 
his trade is fixed his tail can be arranged to suit the 
taste of the market. The operations of docking and 
castration should be performed by an experienced 
practitioner or veterinary surgeon in cool spring 
weather if possible, when there is no danger either 
from frost, summer heat, or flies. Care should be 
used after both operations, and the newly-docked 
horse should not be worked or heated for some two 
weeks after the event. Docking is really a needless 
operation, but will be continued as long as the 
fashion for short tails lasts, and it is not such a 
cruel operation as it is sometimes represented to be. 
I have seen a young horse docked when eating the 
feed of oats which had been taken out to catch him 
with, and never take his head out of the manger 
during the amputation or dressing. A horse in his 
second or third year needs less attention than in his 
first, but all that is given him is not lost. He 
should have good pasture and change of pasture 
during the summer, a run in a clover or old-land fog 
in the autumn, and sound hay, chaff, chopped straw, 
and turnips during winter. The water supply should 
be pure and plentiful, and in cold weather he should 
have the shelter of a shed or fold-yard. It is good 
for foals and yearlings to run together; they 
exercise themselves better than when alone, and for 
blood and hunter foals, that will have to gallop if 
they are to sell well, it is important that they should 
run out with another of their kind. It is well worth 
while looking over the feet and mouths of young horses 
from time to time, and having the hoofs that require 
it trimmed, and “wolf teeth” extracted—which 
