The Sporting Dictionary, and Rural Repository, Volume 1 (of 2) / Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field

by William Taplin

DOCKING

.—The amputation of the tail is so called, from that part of the tail left to the body being called the DOCK. It is a very short and simple operation, attended with no danger, and may with yearlings be performed even with a common knife. A very slight cauterization with a hot-iron, and a little powdered rosin, immediately stops the bleeding, and a cure takes place in a few days. It was formerly a custom to dock horses close to the quarters, under the erroneous and ridiculous impression of making the horse strong in the spine: such idea and practice are, however, in the present more enlightened age, entirely relinquished.