568 
. REVIEW— ON THE VICES OF HORSES. 
need be by inconsiderate rashness and ill-applied severity. To 
prevent these associated actions and mischief, proper precautions 
cannot be taken too early, for a habit of this kind dnce formed, is 
not easily afterwards to be subdued, even by great patience and 
well-judged measures. 
“ To cure or break horses of this vice is difficult : cutting off the 
end of the tongue has been recurred to by some as a cure for it ; 
the soreness created by this means destroying the inclination to the 
trick for a time, when the habit once being interrupted, might or 
might not again return. 
“ Another and more usual way with these horses is to buckle a 
strap tight about the neck, so tight as to prevent, by the restriction 
of the throat, the power of doing it, or, at any rate, to create sufficient 
uneasiness to disincline them to do it. Great care should be taken 
however in doing it, not to damage the trachea or larynx. 
“ In concluding these remarks we may observe, that in the pur- 
chase and sale of horses this vice is not unfrequently a subject of 
litigation : should we venture to interpose an opinion on the ques- 
tion usually agitated on those occasions, whether a horse be un- 
sound or not, or, in other words, returnable or not, with this defect, 
we should say, if the warranty extended to soundness only, the 
horse is not returnable, as horses are often sound with it as to 
going ; but if vice is stated in the warranty, the horse is unques- 
tionably returnable, as it may be ranked among the worst of them. 
“ The jurisprudence of horse-buying and selling, or security from 
deception, has never yet attained to any thing like consistency in 
this, or any other country probably, and very contradictory deci- 
sions are often arrived at in these cases. A settling of this tick- 
lish question is more than I can at present hope to accomplish ; 
however, the following is what at the present moment appears to 
me equitable, and we leave it for future examination. A horse 
that is being curried with that abomination and scourge of the 
race, the sharp iron curry-comb, made without rule, and used 
without discretion, if a horse having this weapon aimed at his 
loins, or his flank, or inside of his thighs, expresses his aversion by 
seizing the manger, the wall, or the rope he is tied up with, be- 
tween his teeth, such is not necessarily to be esteefhed a crib- 
biter, as very many horses do this, and without ever becoming 
crib-biters. But if such horse, on going into the stable, should 
practise this habit when na comb is touching him, or is in sight 
even, then such horse shall be deemed returnable , or is a de- 
ficient horse, having a vice which the warranty should not fail to 
include in it, and especially so if he throws his mouth very wide 
open, and sucks his wind, as he is then not only with a vice , but 
also in a fair way, by weakening his stomach, to become diseased, 
from a bad digestion of his food, and all its natural consequences. 
