314 PARTICULAR LAMENESSES. 



fetlock-joint, owing to the loss of power in the gastrocnemii, 

 which act during repose as extensors of the hock. Division of 

 the tendo-achilles is called " ham-strung ; " and when such an 

 injury is inflicted, the fetlock is brought to the ground, and 

 the limb is powerless. I have, however, seen such cases do well, 

 when the leg has been fastened on to a long stiff splint, extend- 

 ing from the foot to the stifle in front of the limb, and kept in 

 this position by proper bandages. 



CURB. 



This is an injury, sprain, to the calcaneo-cuboid ligament, 

 and not to the cellular tissue, as described by Percivall and 

 others ; nor is it a sprain of the broad annular ligament which 

 passes over and binds down the tendons in their passage down 

 the back of the hock, although the annular ligament as well 

 as the tendons may suffer when the injury is very violent. Such 

 cases are commonly called " sprung hock," and are associated 

 with great lameness. 



The original seat of the injury in curb may be at the point of 

 attachment of the ligament to the cuboid, or at its ultimate 

 termination on the head of the external small metatarsal bone, 

 or its attachment to the posterior aspect of the os calcis may be 

 lacerated to a considerable extent. 



In the first instance, it presents itself as a small hard nodule 

 upon the lower part of the posterior aspect of the hock ; so 

 small and so hard that it is sometimes impossible to say whether 

 it is the injured ligament or the bones themselves. In the 

 second, it can easily be recognised as a protuberance upon the 

 back of the hock, from four to five inches below the point of 

 the OS calcis. 



Curb is apt to cause lameness in young horses, or, when of 

 fresh origin, in horses of any age. Curbs of long standing, 

 being merely the remains of former disease, very seldom cause 

 lameness, and are very often considered by men of experience 

 not to be an unsoundness. 



Curby hocks are over-bent or sickle-shaped, and if associ- 

 ated with long calces, are almost sure to become the seat of 

 true curb. 



From what has already been said about the leverage power 



