The truth about tail blocks

Altering tail carriage for the show ring is alarmingly widespread, and the effects on a horse’s health can be devastating. It is well past time we worked to stop this practice and other cosmetic procedures affecting the tail.

Altering tail carriage for the show ring is alarmingly widespread, and the effects on a horse’s health can be devastating. It is well past time we worked to stop this practice and other cosmetic procedures affecting the tail.

As a Diploma of the american College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM), I am trained to handle some of the most complicated illness that horses can develop, ranging from severe gastrointestinal and cardiovascular disease to neuromuscular disorders, respiratory impairment and neon problems.

Diplomates are typically the veterinarians you are referred to when your horse has a serious or complex disorder that requires more than the basic level of diagnostics and care. Our additional years of training---four or more years beyond veterinary school---prepare us to solve the toughest problems in equine health. As a result, we tend to see many cases of rare and severe equine disease.

In recent group discussions among ACVIM Diplomates, it was clear that an alarmingly high number of cases they see involve complications from tail alterations, which are medical procedures done solely to change the function and position---essentially the appearance---of the tail. Usually done for show ring gain, the most common tail alteration procedures are numbing the tail (“blocking”), nicking one of its tendons or amputating its tip. But their consequences are far more than just cosmetic. Complications resulting from these procedures can cause permanent disfigurement or disability that in some cases lead to death.

Even without complications, tail alteration is cruel because it changes the way a horse can use his tail and sometimes prevents him from using it at all. Tail function is important to equine well-being. In addition to using his tail to swat flies, a horse may clamp it down to protect sensitive, hairless areas from cold winds, and he raises his tail to defecate. A horse’s tail also plays a vital role in equine body language---the ability to raise and swing his tail helps him to fit into a stable, functioning herd.

Because of their negative impact on the horse, practices that alter tail carriage and function for cosmetic or competitive purposes are strongly opposed by many breed associations and veterinary groups, including the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP), the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine--Large Animal Internal Medicine (ACVIM--LAIM) and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). Unfortunately, riders and trainers in several disciplines still consider these procedures a necessity for high-level competition, and altered tails are still rewarded in the show ring.

THE “QUIET TAIL”

Perhaps the most dangerous tail alteration procedure is tail blocking, which the AVMA defines as “numbing the tail to cause it to hang limply.” This practice is most often performed on horses competing in Western disciplines, such as pleasure or reining classes, where horses are penalized for wringing, raising or moving the tail side to side excessively.

Blocking the tail is not the same as blocking a joint, a procedure done during many lameness examinations. A joint block involves sterile preparation of the site and injection of a sterile local anesthetic, such as lidocaine or mepivacaine, into a joint by a licensed veterinarian. These blocks last for a few hours at maximum, and they carry no long-term effects and a low risk of infection.

In contrast, the technique used to block a tail is to blindly inject ethanol along either side of the bones near the base of the tail, seeking to affect the function of the nerves that activate the muscles controlling movement. Ethanol is very destructive to tissues---it can kill nerve cells and destroy proteins. The effects of a “block” can last four to six months in most horses, but the overall impact of the procedure on a horse depends on numerous factors, including the volume of ethanol used, the location injected and how far or to what tissues the solution eventually migrates. Because tail blocking is considered inhumane and unethical, it is not taught in veterinary schools. Thus, any individual who performs the procedure most likely has had no veterinary training and may have minimal knowledge of the anatomy and function of the tail.

The tail of a horse that has been “blocked” or “deadened” cannot be lifted

The very act of injecting alcohol into the tissues is painful. Once the burning sensation of the alcohol has dissipated, far more serious problems can develop. A horse’s tail also plays a vital role in equine body language— the ability to raise and swing his tail helps him to fit into a stable, functioning herd.

above the horizontal plane. Many trainers and exhibitors claim that a block still allows a horse to move his tail from side to side, thus allowing him to continue to swish at flies---a belief that makes the procedure acceptable to many people. However, although a few animals may retain this function, many do not and suffer continuously as a result.

This procedure is unpleasant for the horse from the beginning: The very act of injecting alcohol into the tissues is painful. Once the burning sensation of the alcohol has dissipated, far more serious problems can develop. In many cases, the injection for a tail block is not sufficiently sterilized, raising the risk of abscesses or worse---potentially fatal infection with clostridial bacteria commonly found in the environment is a possibility.

What’s more, some of a horse’s basic bodily functions can be adversely affected by a tail block because the nerves and muscles that enable a him to move his tail are intimately associated with those that control the ability to urinate and defecate. The alcohol can also spread through the tissues to reach parts of the spinal cord as well as the nerves that control movement of the horse’s hind limbs, which can cause neurological deficits or even paralysis.

Multiple cases of adverse effects related to tail blocking procedures have been documented in the veterinary literature. Reported complications include permanent nerve damage that leaves a horse unable to completely empty his bladder or rectum. Chronic urine retention can lead to bladder infections and ascending infections of the kidney. Horses who are unable to defecate normally are likely to develop impaction colic that is difficult or impossible to permanently resolve. Animals with chronic urinary or fecal incontinence often must be put down because of persistent colic or the intense care they require. Infection of the vertebral bodies or spinal canal can lead to severe ataxia and pain, leaving horses unable to move normally and making them a danger to themselves and their handlers. One must consider whether the loss of the horse’s ability to perform these most

Some of a horse’s basic bodily functions can be adversely affected by a tail block because the nerves and muscles that enable him to move his tail are intimately associated with those that control the ability to urinate and defecate.