An animal with a naturally short or docked tail, or a short tail itself; sometimes used to describe a horse with a shortened tail.
From 'bob' (to cut short) + 'tail.' The term became common in the 18th century to describe working horses whose tails were deliberately shortened to prevent entanglement in reins and harnesses.
Docking horse tails was a status symbol—long tails meant a horse was expensive and fancy, but working horses got their tails cut short for safety, so 'bobtail' became associated with working-class horses rather than nobility!
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