There are often injuries of particular parts of the hock-joint. Curb 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; oftener, however, of the ligament than of the sheath. Any sudden action of the limb 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 cow-hocked, whose hocks and legs resemble those of the cow, the hocks being turned inwards, and legs forming a considerable 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 observing the leg sidewise.
Remedies.—The first object in attempting the cure, is to abate inflammation, and this will be most readily accomplished by cold evaporating lotions, frequently applied to the part. Equal portions of spirit of wine, water, and vinegar, will afford an excellent application. It will 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 to bleed from the subcutaneous vein, whose course is near it; and whether the injury is of the annular ligament, or the sheath of the tendon, more active means will be necessary to perfect a cure.
Either a liquid blister should be rubbed on the part, consisting of a vinus or turpentine tincture of cantharides, and this daily applied until some considerable swelling takes place; or, what is the preferable plan, the hair should be cut off, and the part blistered as soon as the heat has been subdued. The blister should be repeated, until the swelling has disappeared, and the horse goes sound.
In severe cases it may be necessary to fire; but a fair trial, however, should be given to milder measures. If the iron is used, it should be applied in straight lines.
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, or generally condemned as unsound. Curb is also an hereditary complaint; and therefore a horse that has once suffered from it, should always be regarded with suspicion, especially if either of the parents have exhibited it.