50 DR. LEGEAR'S STOCK BOOK. 



By carefully reading over the remarks on "Tin 1 Teeth/' it can 

 be easily seen how to tell a horse's age up to five years. 1>\ look- 

 in:-; at the wearing surface of a horse's front teeth at five years 

 old ; you will notice a depression, called the cup or mark. It is 

 by watching the wear and disappearance of this cup that we are 

 erabled to indicate the age up to eleven or twelve years. At 

 about six years, the cups will be worn out of the nippers on the 

 kwer jaw, and at seven years the cups will be worn out of the 

 Literal incisors of the lower jaw; and at eight, it will disappear 

 fioni the corner teeth of the same jaw. Therefore, at the age of 

 eight, the wearing surfaces of the lower row are perfectly smooth; 

 also, about this time there will be noticed a little hook-like pro- 

 jection on each of the- upper corner incisors. At about the age 

 of nine years, the cups disappear from the middle front teeth of 

 the upper jaw; at about ten, they are worn out of the upper 

 lateral incisors; and about eleven, they are all perfectly smooth. 

 Th' foregoing is the general rule to go by, but, of course, there 

 are certain cases that vary a .great deal from that rule. There 

 ai*e certain signs and rules to go by to tell the age of a horse above 

 twelve years, but they are not very reliable. The front teeth of 

 a ycung horse are wider from side to .side, but in an old horse 

 they become wider from before backwards. Some dishonest 

 dealers cup an old horse's teeth to make him look young, but 

 thi^ can be easily detected by looking at the general form and 

 appearance of the teeth. A crib-bitter may be known by the 

 peculiar appearance of his teeth, which are worn and broken off 

 in front. In such a horse, it is hard to tell the age. 



SHARP AND PROJECTING TEETH, 



Aja a horse advances in age the teeth usually wear down in -in 

 irregular manner. This is better understood when we know 

 that the grinders (molars) of the upper jaw do not come di- 

 rectly opposite to those of the lower jaw. Consequently sha"[> 



