BOG SPAVIN. 281 



aWe plan, the hair should be cut off, and the part blistered aa 

 Boon as the heat has been subdued. The blister should be re- 

 peated until the swelling has disappeared, and the horse goes 

 sound. In severe cases it may be necessary to fire ; but a fair 

 trial, however, should be given to milder measures. If the iron 

 is used, it should be applied in straight lines. 



There are few lamenesses in which the absolute and long-con- 

 tinued rest is more requisite. It leaves the parts materially weak- 

 ened, and, if the horse is soon put to work again, the lameness 

 will frequently return. No horse that has had curbs, should be 

 put even to ordinary work in less than a month after the appa- 

 rent cure ; and, even then, he should very gradually resume his 

 former habits. 



A horse with a curb is manifestly unsound. A horse with the 

 vestige of curb, should be regarded with much suspicion, or gene- 

 rally condemned as unsound. 



Curb is also an hereditary complaint, and therefore a horse 

 that has once suffered from it should always be regarded with 

 suspicion, especially if either of the parents has exhibited it.=^ 



BOG SPAVIN. 



The hock is plentifully supplied with reservoirs of mucus, to 

 lubricate (make slippery) the different portions of this compli- 



* Note hy Ifr. Spooner. — The seat of this injury is usually the flexor 

 tendon of the leg, as it passes through a sheath at the back of the hock. It 

 therefore resembles a strain of the back sinews, as they are commonly 

 called, although the injury is seldom so severe or so difficult to be cured. 

 There are many degrees as to the amount and extent of the injury and 

 the corresponding lameness. It is by far the best plan to take a horse out 

 of work immediately on his showing lameness, as by that means the cure can 

 be more expeditiously and perfectly effected ; and there is much less en- 

 largement left afterwards than when a horse is patched up by the applica- 

 cation of stimulants, and worked on, thereby renewing the strain ao-ain and 

 again. After the inflammation has been quite subdued by the means pointed 

 out in the text, we have found that the firing-iron effects the most perfect 

 cure, and secures the animal, in nine cases out of ten, from a return of the 

 lameness. The marks of the iron, in cases of curbs, need not be great, 

 and never operate to the animal's disadvantage. We have always found 

 that a horse which has been fired for a curb, will realize as much, or more, 

 than another which has thrown out a curb, but has not been fired for it 

 We have also frequently found that a horse fired for a curb has remained 

 BouniJ, while in the course of a twelvemonth he has thrown out a curb on 

 the other hock, even though he had been fired with a view of preventing it, 

 showing that, though firing may act as a cure, it does not act as a pre- 

 ventative. 



In the examination of horses for soundness, we have not hesitated to 

 pass a horse with a curb, requiring, however, a special warranty that 

 should the curb cause lameness within a reasonable time, the seller shaU 

 be responsible. 



