CURB. 387 



on circunistances. If lie lias other excellences, he will not be uniformly 

 rejected ; for he may be ridden or driven moderately for many a year 

 without inconyenience, yet one extra hard day's work may lame him for 

 ever, 



CURB. 



There are often injuries of particular parts of the hock-joint. Curh is 

 an affection of this kind. It is an enlargement at the back of the hock, 

 three or four inches below its point. It is either a strain of the ring-like 

 ligament which binds the tendons in their place, or of the sheath of the 

 tendons ; oftsner, however, of the ligament than of the sheath. Any 

 sudden action of the limb of more than usual Adolence may produce it, and 

 therefore horses are found to ' throw out curbs ' after a hardly contested 

 race, an extraordinary leap, a severe gallojj over hea^-y gTOund, or a 

 sudden check in the gallop. Young horses are particulai'ly liable to it, and 

 horses that are cow-Jtocked — whose hocks and legs resemble those of the 

 cow, the hocks being turned inward, and the legs forming a considei^able 

 angle outwards. This is intelligible enough ; for in hocks so formed, the 

 annular ligament must be continually on the stretch, in order to confine 

 the tendon. 



Curbs are generally accompanied by considerable lameness at their first 

 appearance, but the swelling is not always great. They are best detected 

 by obseiwing the leg sideway. 



The first object in attempting the cure is to abate inflammation, and this 

 Avill be most readily accomphshed by cold evaporating lotions frequently 

 applied to the part. Equal portions of spii-it of wine, water, and vinegar, 

 will afford an excellent application. It v.all be almost impossible to keep 

 a bandage on. If the heat and lameness are considerable, it will be 

 prudent to give a dose of physic ; and whether the injury is of the annular 

 ligament, or the sheath of the tendon, more active means Avill be necessary 

 to perfect the cure. 



The heels of the shoe should for a time be raised ; by this means part of 

 the stress on these parts will be removed. Either a liquid blister should 

 be rubbed on the part, consisting of vinegar of cantharides, and this daily 

 applied until some considerable swelling takes place ; or, Avhat is the 

 preferable plan, the hair should be cut off, and the part blistered with 

 biniodide of mercury as soon as the heat has been subdued. The blister 

 should be repeated until the swelHng has disappeared, and the horse goes 

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

 trial should be given to milder measures, this will generally effect the 

 most permanent cure. 



There are few lamenesses in which absolute and long-continued rest is 

 more requisite. It leaves the parts materially weakened, 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 apparent 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 'W'ith much suspicion, or generally condemned 

 as unsound. Some judgment, however, is required to authorise a decided 

 opinion, for hocks, in every other respect unexceptionable, will occa- 

 sionally be disfigured by slight curbs, and yet they are equal to their work 

 and the horse remains sound for life ; bat where the hocks are not other- 

 wise well formed, the case is very different — when they are round, fleshy, 

 full, and curved, instead of straight, clean, and thin, when, in short, they 

 present that imperfect development which every horseman recognises by 



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