No. 4.] THE HORSE. 121 



uient and ruined by shoeing- when they are fifteen. The 

 •careful buyer sees the defects ; the tremulous foreleg, the 

 capped hock, the cocked pastern, the loose under lip, and 

 bids accordingly. A horse of good constitution that has 

 been well cared for may be eight years old until he has 

 passed twenty. The usual guide to the age is the teeth, but 

 some horses keep the teeth in good form longer than others. 



In the days of slavery in Louisiana I have seen buyers 

 at the great auctions carefully examining the teeth of the 

 " hands " upon whom they meant to bid. Horses make such 

 a short sojourn here and live in such a simple way that they 

 do not lose their teeth as mankind do, but they change raj)- 

 idly in appearance. When a horse is five years old his 

 mouth is full ; then all the world can tell his age. The 

 grinding surface of the front teeth has a depression, or 

 " cup," dark in color, which gradually wears away and dis- 

 appears between eight and ten years of age ; after that the 

 careful horseman looks at the changing shape of the whole 

 -dental formation. 



In early life the teeth are convex on the front surface and 

 channelled at the ])ack ; the enamel is pure white and free 

 from tartar. As age comes on they become more round in 

 appearance ; the gums recede and show the necks of the 

 teeth. In youth they seemed largest at the base ; in age 

 at the crown. The tasks, which mares rarely attain, show 

 prominently and slope backward. In youth the incisors 

 stand perpendicular and meet each other full ; as they wear 

 and the gums recede the teeth incline outward, those in the 

 lower jaw lean forward the most, and they assume the pe- 

 culiar shape seen in old rats or other rodents. This appear- 

 ance is a positive proof of old age. 



The frequent statement that horses may live to great age 

 under natural, healthy conditions is not borne out by obser- 

 vation or stud-book record. A horse, however kept, is old 

 at twenty-five ; after that his body and mind both fail. 



In Blaine's veterinary work it is said that the first five 

 years of a horse may be considered the equivalent to the 

 first twenty in a man ; a horse of ten years may be called 

 as old as a man of forty, a horse of fifteen as a man of 

 fifty, a horse of twenty as a man of sixty, a horse of 



