DISEASES, DEFECTS, ETC. 77 



gave evidence that crib-biting was, in their opinion, at all 

 events, a vice within the meaning of a warranty that a 

 horse was free from vice, and the plaintiff had a verdict on 

 that ground (b). 



From sudden or over exertion, the ligaments which tie Curb. 

 down the tendons in the neighbourhood of joints may be 

 extended, and inflammation, swelling and lameness may 

 ensue, or the sheaths of the tendons in the neighbourhood 

 of joints, from their extent of motion in these situations, 

 may be susceptible of injury. A curb is an afiection of 

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

 about three or four inches below the point of the hock. 

 Any sudden action of the hmb of more than usual violence 

 may produce it, and therefore horses are found to " throw 

 out curbs " after a hardly-contested race, an extraordinary 

 leap, a severe gallop over heavy ground, or a sudden check 

 in the gallop. Young horses are particularly liable to it, 

 and horses that are cotchocked, or whose hocks and legs 

 resemble those of the cow, the hocks being turned inward 

 and the legs forming a considerable angle outwards ; for in 

 hocks so formed the annular Kgament must be continually 

 on the stretch to confine the tendon (c). 



A horse with a curb is manifestly unsound. But as 

 curbs do not necessarily produce lameness, it is considered 

 that horses with curbs may be passed as sound on a special 

 warranty being given, that, should the curb cause lameness 

 within a reasonable time (which time should be fixed), the 

 seller should be responsible. 



But if a horse throw out a curb immediately after sale, Curby hocks 

 it is no breach of a warranty of soundness, even if he had "o* ^^ ™- 

 curbi/ hocks at the time of sale. Thus, where an action was 

 brought on a breach of warranty of soundness, it appeared 

 that the plaintiff before sale had objected to the horse 

 because he had curb]/ hocks. However, he bought him on 

 a general warranty of soundness being given, and about a 

 fortnight after sale the horse sprung a curb. At the trial 

 veterinary surgeons were called by the plaintiff, who stated 

 that the term curbi/ hocks indicated a peculiar form of the 

 hock, which was considered to render a horse more Hable 

 to throw out a curb, but did not of itself occasion lameness. 



{b) Paul V. Sardwick, Sittings at v. MorUy, 33 Iowa, 120 ; ^Yalher v. 



■Westminster, H. T. 1831, MS. ; Bohington, 43 Yt. 608. 

 Chitty on Contracts, 12th ed. 509. {c) Lib. U. K. "The Horse," 



And see the American cases of Wash- 267. See also App. to XJ. K., Ed. 



burn V. Cuddihy, 8 Gray, 438 ; Dean 1862, p. 509. 



soundness. 



