Tail-less Foal

[Patuxet]

A month or so ago an otherwise healthy filly -- on her feet in 20 minutes -- was born without a tail on the farm in Ocala where I board my horses. The owners, old timers in the game, never saw this before nor has anyone else they've talked to, including some vets. Is it really this unique? Anyone here recollect seeing or hearing of it?

[xfactor fan]

Wasn't there a horse running about 10 years ago that was born tailess? Maybe Sea Hero???? Didn't seem to affect his running, but looked odd.

[MINNOW]

Shame what is it going to swat the fly's with.

[Bast]

Wasn't there a horse running about 10 years ago that was born tailess? Maybe Sea Hero???? Didn't seem to affect his running, but looked odd.

You're probably thinking of Sea Cadet.

He had a tail, but not much of one.

[madelyn]

Tail also affects balance - but growing up without one she will adjust. The bigger problem, as stated above, is her ability to deal with insects.. if she is a Storm Cat derivative, a good name might be "Manx One"...

[Ramona]

There's a horse down the road with a Manx like tail and I see the owners tie some kind of a split leather tail on to frisk the flies away.

[Bast]

Tail also affects balance - but growing up without one she will adjust. The bigger problem, as stated above, is her ability to deal with insects.. if she is a Storm Cat derivative, a good name might be "Manx One"...

I have a pair of kittens who are sisters. One has only a vertebrae or two. They balance differently, but otherwise they both bounce like kittens everywhere.

I would think a horse would miss being able to take care of flies. I cannot imagine why people intentionally docked the tails of working horses.

[pfrsue]

When you say no tail, do you mean no hair? Or do you mean that the entire tailbone apparatus (for lack of a better term) is missing?

My first horse was an Appaloosa mare with a stumpy rat tail which was basically just the bones, the skin and a small fringe of hair along it. Appaloosas are prone to rat tails, but hers was the most extreme example I ever saw.

She was really hard to manage for insects. Since swishing flies is a reflex, even without a tail, she would constantly smack herself with the stump. She actually had scarring and permanent changes in the hair from doing that.

Having said that, she was a handy thing and never had any balance problems at any speed, even through quick changes of direction. We did a lot of showing over fences and low level eventing.

[KBEquine]

Tail also affects balance - but growing up without one she will adjust. The bigger problem, as stated above, is her ability to deal with insects.. if she is a Storm Cat derivative, a good name might be "Manx One"...

I would think a horse would miss being able to take care of flies. I cannot imagine why people intentionally docked the tails of working horses.

Because unlike riding horses whose tack is above them, a work horse's harness, etc., is also behind him & getting that long tail (sometimes including the tailbone) caught & pinched could cause injury or a very dangerous runaway - not to mention the fact that a work horse switching its tail at flies could take out the eye of the person driving them (if the handler was walking behind a plow rather than driving a cart). It wasn't originally for fashion - it was necessity.

[Jean]

There was a horse in Alberta named no Tail who had only a few hairs growing out abouve his anus. He was a decent race horse no star but won a few.

[Patuxet]

Thanks for the interesting observations.

The filly has a little stub no more than two-inches with some hairs growing from it and in time they hope to be able to weave some kind of a false tail into it.

They're thinking of naming her "Showing My Assets". (groan!)

[Toccet02]

They're thinking of naming her "Showing My Assets". (groan!)

No. No, no, no, no, no. Please. No.