The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1898-12-10
WEAR FALSE TAILS.
FASHIONABLE HORSES OWE
MUCH TO DECEPTION.
Wignakers Do the work-No Trouble
to Match Horses When the Tails Dir.
er-Artifce Is Much In Favor In the
Chicago BouIevards.

from Chicago Tribune: Hero,
John! Isn't that the mare 1 saw you
driving this morning?" Yes, certain
ly it is. What of it?" well! She
had a short tail then, and now she is
carrying a regular w~aterspout; what
does it mean?" why, just this. l
had Der tail cut off so as to be in the
fashion, and when it was done l didnf
Iii it, and so | got a tail made, and
ninety-nine people out of a hundred
don't know the difference" And this
conversation between two regulars in
Grand boulevard opens up the question
o. WHAT may be called a horses toilet.
A horse of beautiful conformation may
or may not have a good tail. If he
has not a full one to start with no
amour of docking can disguise the
fact. And more horses carry artif-
cial tails than the everyday world
knows of. Neither is it a recent
fashion Old-time horsemen like
George Bishop or Dunn Walton will
tell you that as long as they can re-
member, and their memories will go
back half a century, the made-up tail
has figured in the furniture of a first
class stable, and both of them nave
earned lots of money in setting up and
Strengthening tails, and know what
they ale talking about. Fifty years
ago, when the harness horse world
knew nothing about class races, when
every event was a match, artificial
tails were in use, no so much as an
adornment, but to befog the betting
element. Those were the days of Mos
cow, Ripton, Flora Temple, Tacony,L La
dy Moscow, and Hero, the PAGER, and
all of their kind, were horses with
bobbed tails, as any one who has seen
pictures of Flora Temple, the first trot-
ter to beat 2:20, or any of her contem-
poraries, can verify. Well, now and
again a man with a fast trotter would
make a match for a big stake, the said
trotter being disguised on the day of
the race with a false tail, and perhaps
a forehead mark painted out. Alls
fair in love and war, and also in trot-
ting matches. And the cult has sur
vived to this day.
Leonard Jerome in New York had a
f~our-1n-hand team of fine looking bays,
up headed, high steppers, and every
one had the browning glory of a horse
"a full, flowing tail. Old John Bau-
douine, another four-in-hand whip of
those by-gone days, had a team of
clinkers, and was a road rival to Jer-
ONE. But one of his leaders, the best
horse of the bunch, had a rat tail, and
SO the appearance of his team was
spoiled. "Get a tail made for that Off
leader" suggested a friend, and he did;
no a taxidermist's cured tail, but a
regular ou~t-and-outer, made by a wig
maker. 1t cost a lot of money, but
that didn't matter, and after that, on
the question of tails. the Jerome and
Baudouine teams were equal. That
was about the time when all the car
riage horses in Gotham were trotting
bred, though many people seem to
think that the use of the trotter as a
heavy harness horse is of recent date.
The carriage horses of that day were
for the most part big animals, sixteen
hands or over and according to their
breeding they had good full tails or the
reverse, and it was then that the false
tails were first used, just as they are
today, though few people knew of it.
It was a date when breeding from old
Abdallah stock and from Star mares
was close up, and almost every horse
a Of middle age knows that Abdal-
tah had a rat tail and perpetuated it,
and a Star tail was as narrow and at
tenuated as a Jupiter foot. On the
question of horses tails, there are any
number of people who have an impress
sion that the short flag, or bobtail, is a
recent adaptation of an English fash
ion. If it be an imported style, it is
not at all of recent date, unless sixty
or seventy years ago can be considered
so. All of the old-time prints of fam
Gus horses show them with short tails:
and if the in which the said
tails were carried means anything,
they were pricked and locked. An old
time dealer, who used to bring many
a good load of horses to this CITY. al
ways had every horse in the lot
pricked and locked and pulled. They
would arrive with full tails. standing
we'll out, and purchasers could have
them cut to any length desired-eight
or ten inches or banged-it did not
matter which.
In this city today there are many
well-known road horses Haunting
splendid full tails which do not belong
to them. But it is C. delicate subject,
and the mention of names would be
offensive. But, for instance, a year or
two since a member of the inner rina
of Gas bought a roadster for a good
solid figure. In conformation and col
or he was a perfect mate for one al
~eady in the stable. But the stable
horse had a full tail; the latest pur-
chase had a thin one. Today he car
ries as good a tail as his mate, but
it's art, not nature. In New York there
are many examples of the false tail
The trotter Hugh Mclaughlin, which
The trotter Hugh Mclaughlin, which
Charley Moser used to drive for a
well-known Brooklynite, was a rat
tailed horse, but few people knew it
for he had an artificial tail that was
a triumph of the wigmaker's art. Nc
Laughlin was by Aberdeen, and little
can be said of Aberdeen's tail, Just be
cause there was little of it. One Of
the most natural looking tails ever
seen in New York was made for q
roadster owned by the late William
~L-~- T. L.