AGE OF THE HORSE.

The method of judging the age of a horse is by examining the teeth, which amount to forty when complete; namely, six nippers, or incisors, as they are sometimes called, two tushes, and six grinders on each side, in both jaws. A foal, when first born, has in each jaw the first and second grinders developed; in about a week the two centre nippers make their appearance, and within a month a third grinder. Between the sixth and ninth month the whole of the nippers appear, completing the colt’s mouth. At the completion of the first year a fourth grinder appears, and a fifth by the end of the second year. At this period a new process commences, the front or first grinder giving way, which is succeeded by a larger and permanent tooth, and between two years and a half and three years the two middle nippers are displaced, and succeeded by permanent teeth. At three years old the sixth grinder has either made or is about making its appearance. In the fourth year another pair of 148nippers and the second pair of grinders are shed; and the corner nippers, toward the end of the fifth year, are succeeded by permanent teeth, when the mouth is considered almost perfect, and the colt or filly becomes a horse or a mare. What is called the mark of the teeth by which a judgment of the age of a horse for several years may be formed, consists of a portion of the enamel bending over and forming a little pit in the surface of the nipper, the inside and bottom of which becomes blackened by the food. This soon begins to wear down, and the mark becomes shorter and wider, and fainter. By the end of the first year the mark in the two middle teeth is wide and faint, and becomes still wider and fainter till the end of the third year, by which time the centre nippers have been displaced by the permanent teeth, which are larger than the others, though not yet so high, and the mark is long, narrow, deep, and black. At four years the second pair of permanent nippers will be up, the mark of which will be deep, while that of the first pair will be somewhat fainter, and that of the corner pair nearly effaced. At this age, too, the tushes begin to appear. Between the fourth and fifth year, the corner nippers have been shed, and the new teeth come quite up, showing the long deep irregular mark; the other nippers bearing evident tokens of increasing wearing. At six years the mark on the centre nippers is worn out, but there is still a brown hue in the centre of the tooth. At seven years the mark will be worn from the four centre nippers, and will have completely disappeared at eight years from them all. It may be added, that it is the lower jaw of the horse that is usually examined, and which is here described. The changes of the teeth taking place in both jaws about the same time, but the cavity of the teeth in the upper jaw being somewhat deeper, the mark lasts longer, though the exact period is a matter of controversy. According to what may be considered good authority, however, it may be stated that at nine years the mark will be worn from the middle nippers, from the next pair at ten, and from all the upper nippers at eleven. During all this time the tushes (the extremities of which are at first sharp-pointed and curved) become gradually blunter, shorter, and rounder. For further information on this subject, the volume on the Horse, published by the Society, may be advantageously consulted.