PROCESS OF TEETHING. 1^9 



be doubted that the mark remains m them for some years after 

 It has been obliterated irom the nippers in the lower jaw. 



There are various opinions as to the intervals between the dis- 

 appearance of the marks from the different cutting-teeth in the 

 upper jaw. Some have averaged it at two years, and others at 

 one. The author is inclined to adopt the latter opinion, and then 

 the age will be thus determined . at nine years, the mark will 

 be worn out from the middle nippers — from the next pair at ten, 

 and from all the upper nippers at eleven. During these periods, 

 the tush is likewise undergoing a manifest change — it is blunter, 

 shorter, and rounder In what degree this takes place in the 

 difierent periods, long and most favorable opportunities for obser- 

 vation can alone enable the horseman to decide. 



Tiie alteration in the form of the tushes is frequently uncertain. 

 It will sometimes be blunt at eight, and at others, remain pointed 

 at eighteen. 



After eleven, and until the horse is very old, the age may be 

 guessed at, with some degree of confidence, from the shape of the 

 upper surface or extremity of the nippers. At eight, they are all 

 oval, the length of the oval running across from tooth to toooth ; 

 but as the horse gets older, the teeth diminish in size — and this 

 commencing in their width, and not in their thickness. They 

 become a little apart from each other, and their surfaces become 

 round instead of oval. At nine, the centre nippers are evidently 

 so ; at ten, the others begin to have the oval shortened. At 

 eleven, the second pair of nippers are quite rounded ; and at 

 thirteen, the corner ones have that appearance. At fourteen, the 

 faces of the central nippers become somewhat triangular. At 

 seventeen, they are all so. At nineteen, the angles begin to wear 

 off, and the central teeth are again oval, but in a reversed direc- 

 tion, viz., from outward, inward ; and at twenty-one, they all 

 wear this form. 



It would of course be folly to expect anything like certainty in 

 an opinion of the exact age of an old horse, drawn from the above 

 indications. Stabled horses have the marks sooner wora out than 

 those that are at grass, and crib-biters still sooner. At nine or 

 ten. the bars of the mouth become less prq^iiinent, and their reg- 

 ular dimiimtion will designate increasing age. At eleven or 

 twelve, the lower nippers change their original upright direction, 

 and project forward or horizontally, and become of a yellow color. 



The general indications of old age, independent of the teeth, 

 are deepening of the hollows over the eyes ; gray hairs, and par- 

 ticularly over the eyes and about the muzzle ; thinness and hang- 

 ing down of the lips ; sharpness of the withers ; sinking of the 

 oack ; lengthening of the quarters ; and the disappearance of 

 windo-alls, spavins, and tumors of every kind. 

 9 r 



