MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY. 



having shot forward ; consequently their surfiice is lying 

 obliquely, and hence their elongated form from front to 

 back, as more particularly developed in the corner teeth. 

 The tushes are considerably larger in proportion than in a 

 horse under twenty years of age. 



We may briefly remark that the incisory teeth of the 

 horse remain as guides to mark throughout the whole of 

 life his age, and indicate the successive degrees up from 

 twenty-one to twenty-three years : first, by the order in 

 which they appear ; second, by the obliteration of their 

 outer cavity ; third, by the changes and disappearance of 

 their funnel ; and fourthly and lastly, by the successive 

 shapes assumed by their table after nine years of age, and 

 which are the oval, the rounded, the triangular, and the 

 biangular. The appearance of the incisors, and the oblite- 

 ration of their mark, are unquestionably the most certain 

 indications by which to judge of the age of a horse. During 

 the four or five years that follow the obliteration of the 

 mark, the knowledge of the age is still tolerably certain, 

 because there are many modes of correcting it ; such as the 

 condition of the termination of the blind pouch of the 

 funnel next the root, the general appearance of the tooth, 

 and the form that the table of the tooth assumes. The 

 periods of triangularity and biangularity present the greatest 

 difficulties ; the data of these latter periods are most com- 

 monly approximations ; nay, it is next to impossible to pro- 

 nounce a positive opinion as to the age of a horse from 

 seventeen to twenty. 



That the reader may more easily comprehend and consult 

 the data for judging of the age of a horse, we have given the 

 following table, which affords a comprehensive view of all the 

 periods which we have more fully detailed in the preceding re- 

 marks, a reference to each being noted at the end of the table. 



