DOCKINC HORSES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 227, 18 June 1908, Page 3

DOCKINC HORSES.

THE PRACTICE DEbliNDEli. "Stud Groom" writes:—'.'Having noticed from somo reference in one of the papers of Saturday, June 6, to tho above subject, and also on several previous occasions, that the 'crnel practice' of docking horses is still largely in vogue in Canterbury, if you will allow mo space in your valuable paper I would like to' say that the correspondent's statements of that date, in reference to the practice being cruel, and'unwarrantable, and a disfigurement of horses, are absurd' and groundless, and usually such statements come from that class of people'who have no authority on the'matter whatever. It would have been more satisfactory if the correspondents, when making ,such ; statements, had. stated why it is any more cruel to dock a foal's tail than a. lamb's tail. I myself fail to see the difference. Docking is not cruel if done at a proner time, and by a practical man, and instead of being useless is a benefit in many ways, and instead of being a disfigurement adds 10 per cent. Lo any. animal. I have known cases when breaking, in which young horses with long, .stumpy tails get tliem over the : traces and front part of a dray. This consequently canscd the voting Viorie to kick, a habit that always reniained with it. This samo question 1 arose in England some eight or. nine years ago, but I or.i glad to say the practice still exists among the best and' largest breeders in tho world, haunt; been brought up upon, and associated with some of the largest studs in England, gome of them h&vo considerably over ono hundred animals in ono stud, and not ona will be seen undocked. Having visited some of the chows in this Dominion, I could not help remarking the ridiculous manner in which the draught horses looked with their long, stumpy, tails. 1 bur that in the case of ohi particaltr breeder in this country, when h« buy« » mob of horses, the first thiu» he doM ii to dock them, ana when I asked him his reason for so doing his reply was: 'They look so' much better, and sell better.' If draught horse breeders should bo prohibited from this practice, the sooner they go where there ia freedom lie better."