UNSOUNDNESS. 49 j 



Where there is no warranty, an action may be brought on the ground of 

 fraud ; but this is very difficult to be maintained, and not often hazarded. It 

 will be necessary to prove that the dealer knew the defect, and that the purchaser 

 was imposed upon by his false representation, or other fraudulent means. 

 If the defect was evident to every eye, the purchaser has no remedy— he should 

 have taken more care ; but if a warranty was given, that extends to all unsound- 

 ness, palpable or concealed. Although a person should ignorantly or carelessly 

 buy a blind horse, warranted sound, he may reject it— the warranty is his 

 guard, and prevents him from so closely examining the horse as he otherwise 

 would have done ; but if he buys a blind horse, thinking him to be sound, and 

 without a warranty, he has no remedy. Every one ought to exercise common 

 circumspection and common sense. 



A man should have a more perfect knowledge of horses than falls to the lot 

 of most, and a perfect knowledge of the vendor too, who ventures to buy a horse 

 without a warranty. 



If a person buys a horse wan-anted sound, and discovering no defect in him, 

 and, relying on the warranty, re- sells him, and the unsoundness is discovered 

 by the second purchaser, and the horse returned to the first purchaser, or an 

 action commenced against him, he has his claim on the first seller, and may 

 demand of him not only the price of the horse, or the difference in value, but 

 every expense that may have been incurred. 



Absolute exchanges, cf one horse for another, or a sum of money being 

 paid in addition by one of the parties, stand on the same ground as simple 

 sales. If tjjere is a warranty on either side, and that is broken, an action may 

 be maintained : if there be no warranty, deceit must be proved. 



The trial of horses on sale often leads to disputes. The law is perfectly clear, 

 but the application of it, as in other matters connected with horse-flesh, attended 

 with glorious uncertainty. The intended purchaser is only liable for damage 

 done to the horse through his own misconduct. The seller may put what 

 restriction he chooses on the trial, and takes the risk of all accidents in the fair 

 use of the horse within such restrictions. 



If a horse from a dealer's stable is galloped far and fast, it is probable that he 

 will soon show distress ; and if he is pushed farther, inflammation and death 

 may ensue. The dealer rarely gets recompensed for this ; nor ought he, as 

 he knows the unfitness of his horse, and may thank himself for permitting such 

 a trial ; and if it should occur soon after the sale, he runs the risk of having 

 the horse returned, or of an action for its price. 



In this, too, he is not much to be pitied. The mischievous and fraudulent 

 practice of dealers, especially in London, of giving their horses, by overfeeding, 

 a false appearance of muscular substance, leads to the ruin of many a valuable 

 animal. It would be a useful lesson to have to contest in an action or two the 

 question whether a horse overloaded with fat can be otherwise than in a state 

 of disease, and consequently unsound. 



It is proper, however, to put a limit to what has been too frequently asserted 

 from the bench, that a horse wai-ranted sound must be taken as fit for immediate 

 use, and capable of being immediately put to any fair work the owner chooses. 

 A hunter honestly warranted sound is certainly warranted to be in immediate 

 condition to follow the hounds. The mysteries of condition, as has been shown 

 in a former part of the work, are not sufficiently unravelled. 



In London, and in most great towns, there are repositories for the periodical 

 sale of horses by auction. They are of great convenience to the seller who can 

 at once get rid of a horse with which he wishes to part, without waiting month 

 after month before he obtains a purchaser, and he is relieved from the nuisance 

 or fear of having the animal returned on account of breach of the warranty, 



