Ml KQUID.E. 



Maped and become deteriorated. ThU u not the case with the wild 

 hone* which are found on the rich prairie* of America, which retain 

 the *Ue and form of the well-bred hone. In many part* of the world 

 the Hone is found in a semi-wild condition. It was introduced by the 

 French into the Falkland Islands in 1764, and since that time they have 

 greatly increased. The horses in these islands are always found on the 

 eastern aide of East Falkland, although there is no natural boundary ; 

 and that part of the island is not more fertile than the rest The pre- 

 dominant colours of these hones are roan and iron-gray. Mr. Darwin 

 ays they are rather small-sued, but are generally in good condition. In 

 South America the Hone was first landed at Buenos Ayres in 1537, and 

 the colony being for a time deserted, it ran wild. In 1580, forty-three 

 yean after, they were found wild at the Straits of Magellan. On the 

 Pampas they now abound in prodigious numbers. The Quachos, a 

 semi-civilised race of men, lire amidst these horses. They early learn 

 to capture and ride them, and a Quacho is seldom off the back of his 

 hone. It is said that they can capture and break in one of these wild 

 horses in the course of an hour. The flesh serves them also as an 

 article of food. The hides are preserved and eold. With the hones 

 are also herds of wild oxen. The numbers of these niml may be 

 judged of from the fact that in a period of five yean, from 1838 

 to 1842, Monte Video and Buenos Ayrea yielded annually about 

 90,000,000 Ibs. of oxen and horses' hides, and 9,500,000 Ibs. of horse- 

 hair. The Horse is now found over the whole continent of America. 

 Darwin says the natives of Tierra del Fuego are well stocked with 

 hones, each man having six or seven, and all the women and even the 

 children haf e their own horse. In his ' Fauna Boreoli-Americaua,' 

 Sir JoMh Richardson tells us that the Horse is found amongst the 

 wandering Indiana who frequent the prairies of the Saskatchewan and 

 the Missouri. They use it for chasing the buffalo, as well as a beast of 

 burden. Amongst the Indians, as well as the Quachos, the Horse is 

 eaten. It is also eaten by the Calmuck Tartars, and in many parts of 

 Asia mare's-milk is taken as an article of diet It is also converted 

 into butter and cheese, and a favourite beverage amongst the Tartars 

 is made by fermenting it 



Everywhere the horse is recognised as the most useful of the 

 servants of man, and he yields in intelligence to the dog alone. In 

 the earlier ages of the world he seems to have been devoted to the 

 purposes of war or of pleasure, while the ox was our agricultural 

 servant; but his beauty, and strength, and tractability have now 

 connected him, directly or indirectly, with almost all the purposes of 

 life. If he differs in different countries in form and in size it is from 

 the influence of climate and cultivation; but otherwise, from the 

 war-horse, as he is depicted on the friezes of ancient temples, to the 

 stately charger of Holsteiu and of Spain, or from the fleet and 

 beautiful Arabian to the diminutive Shetlonder, there is an evident 

 similarity of form and destination which clearly stamps his common 

 origin. 



He is naturally and of choice an herbivorous animal. His thin nml 

 muscular lips, hU firm and compressed mouth, and his sharp incisor 

 _ teeth are admirably adapted to seize and to crop the grass; and 

 'although we know nothing of him in his natural state, yet when 

 he has escaped from the bondage of man, and follows his own propen- 

 sities, the grass is his chosen food. In his domesticated state however 

 he was destined to live partially or chiefly on other aliment, and that 

 of a much harder kind the various species of corn ; therefore while 

 man and the carnivorous animals can only champ and crush their 

 food, a provision is given to the horse, in the structure of some of the 

 bones of the face, by means of which he can comminute and grind 

 down hu food as perfectly as in the best contrived mill. 



The teeth of the hone require some lengthened consideration, not 

 only from their admirable adaptation to this purpose, but as indi- 

 cating, by the various changes which they undergo, almost beyond 

 the possibility of error, the age of the animal. He may, when young 

 in yean, be reduced nearly to the decrepitude of age by the barbarous 

 uMge of those who ought to be his most nalons protectors ; the 

 cavity above the eye may be deepened, the under lip may fall, the 

 limb* may be bowed, and the feet may be battered and distorted, 

 but it u not easy to alter the character of the teeth. 



The colt is generally dropped with the first and second molar and 

 grinding teeth having forced their way through the gum. Win u he 

 is about seven or eight days old the two central front or incuor teeth, 

 above and below, appear. At the expiration of five or six weeks the 

 next two incisor* may be seen. At three months they will have over- 

 taken the central ones, and both pain will have nearly attained their 

 natural level. A third grinder will then have appeared ; and a little 

 before or after the eighth month the third nipper, above and below 

 and on each side, will be seen. The colt will now have his full 

 complement of front or cutting teeth. 



These teeth are beautifully adapted to their purpose. They have 

 in front an derated cutting edge of considerable sharpness. It is 

 formed of enamel, a polished substance almost too hard to be acted 

 upon by the file, which coven the tooth. This elevated edge is bent 

 somewhat inwards and over the tooth, so that there is a depression 

 behind it which gradually become* stained by the food and constitute* 

 what U called ' the mark ' in the mouth of the colt or hone. 



This elevated edge of enamel, hard as it is, is gradually worn down 

 in the act of nipping and cutting the grass ; and as it wean away the 



EQUIDJZ. :.w 



hollow behind becomes diminished, and u at length totally obliterated. 

 By the degree in which this mark is effaced, the horseman, not only 

 with regard to the first, but the permanent teeth, judges of the age 

 of the animal This obliteration begins to be manifest at a very early 

 age. At six months it is sufficiently evident in the four central 

 nippers. At a year and a half the mark will be very faint in the 

 central nippers, diminished in the other two, and the surface of all of 

 them will be flattened. 



At twelve months a fourth grinder protrudes, and a fifth at the 

 expiration of two years. 



These ore all temporary teeth. They were only to last during a 

 very early period of the life of the animal ; and when his jaws war* 

 considerably expanded they were destined to give way to another act, 

 larger, firmer, and that would probably last during life. The 

 permanent teeth had been long growing in the socket beneath the 

 temporary ones, and had been pressing upon their roots, and that 

 pressure hod caused an absorption of these roots, until at length they 

 lost all hold and were displaced. 



When the animal in about three years old the central pair of 

 nippers, above and below, are thus removed, and two fresh teeth, 

 easily distinguishable from the first by their increased size, make 

 their appearance, so that a three-year-old colt is easily recognised by 

 these two new and enlarged central nippers. 



A three-year-old colt has his form and energies much more 

 developed than a two-year-old one, and is considerably more 

 valuable ; therefore some dishonest breeders endeavour to pass him 

 upon the unwary as being a year older than he really is, and they 

 accomplish this in an ingenious but cruel manner. This cannot 

 however be effected until a portion of the second year is past, when 

 the permanent teeth below are beginning to press upon the roots of 

 their predecessors, and then the breeder extracts the central milk- 

 teeth. Those below having no longer anything to resist tlieir 

 progress, grow far more rapidly than they otherwise would do, and 

 the scoundrel gains four or five mouths in the apparent age of his 

 colt 



Can this trickery be detected t Not always, except by him who is 

 well accustomed to horses. The comparatively slow wasting of the 

 other nippers, the difference of the development of these nippers in 

 the upper and under jaw for the breeder usually confines his 

 roguery to the lower jaw, the upper one being comparatively seldom 

 examined these circumstances, together with a deficiency of general 

 development in the colt, will alone enable the purchaser to detect the 

 attempted cheat 



The honest mouth of a three-year-old horse should be thus formed : 

 the central teeth are palpably larger than the others, and have the 

 mark on their upper surface evident and well defined. They will 

 however be lower than the other teeth. The mark in the next pair 

 of nippers will be nearly worn away, and that in the corner nippen 

 will begin to wear. 



At three yean and a half the second nippers will be pushed from 

 their sockets, and their place gradually supplied by a new pair; and 

 at four and a half the corner nippers will be undergoing the same 

 process. Thus at four yean old the central nippurs will be fully 

 grown ; the next pair will be up, but will not have attained their full 

 height ; and the corner nippers will be small, with their mark nearly 

 effaced. At five years old the mark will begin to be effaced from the 

 central teeth, the next pair will be fully grown and the blackness of 

 the mark a little taken off, and the corner pair will be protruding or 

 partly grown. 



At this period, or between the fourth and fifth year, another change 

 will have taken place in the mouth ; the tushes will have begun to 

 appear. There will be two of them in each jaw, between the nippen 

 and the grinders, considerably nearer to the former than the latter, 

 and particularly so in the lower jaw. The use of these tushes in the 

 domesticated state of the hone is not evident ; but they were probably 

 designed as weapons of offence in the wild state of the animal 

 Attempts are too frequently made to hasten the appearance of the 

 second and the corner teeth in the same manner as described with 

 regard to the first, and the gum is often deeply lanced in order to 

 hasten the appearance of the tush. 



At six yean old the mark on the central nippers will be diminished, 

 if not obliterated. A depression and a mark of rather brown hue may 

 remain, but the deep blackened hole in the centre will no longer be 

 found. The other incison will also bo somewhat worn, and the tush 

 fully developed. 



At seven the mark on the next pair of incison will have nearly 

 tit '!! .u..l. ;.n.l iln- In-h will ! r.mi,.l.,l at the point, mi. I the .-.lt;.'H. 



At eight the mark will have disappeared from all the incisor teeth, 

 and the tuh will be evidently rounder and blunter. 



At this period another piece of trickery is occasionally practised. 

 The breeder had, till the animal was five yean old, been endeavouring 

 to give him an older appearance than his yean entitled him to, 

 because in proportion as he approached the period when his powen 

 were most perfectly developed his value increased; but now he 

 endeavoun to conceal the ravages of age. The hone is cost, and 

 with a sharp-pointed steel instrument a little hole is dug on the 

 surface of the corner incisor, to which a red-hot iron is afterwards 

 applied. An indelible black mark is thus left on the tooth. Some- 



