470 
VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE, 
the plaintiff ; and Mr. Sergeant Talfourd and Mr. Greenwood re- 
presented the defendant. 
The plaintiff, Mr. Joseph Anderson, carries on the business of a 
dealer in horses extensively in Piccadilly, as did his father before 
him, in the same place ; and the defendant, Mr. Joseph Blackburn, 
is a gentleman of fortune residing at Brockley Hall, Surrey. It 
appeared that in the autumn of last year Lord Rancliffe, who was 
in court and gave evidence on the trial, sold to the plaintiff, for 
£100, the horse in question, which his Lordship had bred himself, 
and which was a very fine animal, standing nearly 16 hands high, 
of the Arabian breed. He was seven ) r ears old when he was sold, 
and, in his Lordship’s judgment, was perfectly sound. Mr. Barlow, 
a veterinary surgeon, living at Cotgrave, in the vicinity of Bunny- 
park, the mansion of Lord Rancliffe, had also examined the horse, 
and certified his soundness on his being sold to the plaintiff. The 
animal, from a foal, had always had a remarkably high action, both 
before and behind, which is peculiar to the Arabian horses ; and 
this feature had led the defendant to suspect, after he had bought 
the horse, that he was subject to the disease called “ stringhalt.” 
At the time the horse was sold to the plaintiff, Lord Rancliffe was 
in infirm health, which induced his Lordship to part with him, 
believing that he should never again be able to ride him. His 
Lordship had ridden him down to a month or two before parting 
with him, and strongly repudiated, as did also his groom, the sug- 
gestion that the horse was affected with stringhalt ; ascribing, on the 
contrary, the peculiarity which had led to that suggestion to the 
high action by which the Arabian breed of horses is invariably 
characterised. The groom, William Jones, deposed that he had 
known the horse ever since he was foaled, and had been in the 
habit of riding him ; and his action he described as “ a high round 
action, before and behind,” and the same as the animal had been 
foaled with. He had a “ catching” up of his legs resembling 
stringhalt, but it differed from stringhalt in this, — that a horse sub- 
ject to that disease never had it in more than one of his hinder 
legs at the same time , whilst the horse in question had the peculiar 
catching gait in all his legs : besides, in stringhalt, horses “ picked” 
their feet up a great deal higher than he did. Shortly after the 
removal of the horse to the plaintiff’s stables in Piccadilly, the de- 
fendant, Mr. Blackburn, called there about the purchase of a horse. 
He had several shewn him, and among them the horse which had 
been bought of Lord Rancliffe, which he preferred to all the rest. 
The plaintiff’s servant told him he was an expensive horse, his price 
being 130 guineas. The defendant offered 120 guineas, which the 
plaintiff demurred about taking, but eventually agreed to accept 
that sum : the defendant thereupon took the horse away. He 
