MARKS OF AGE, AND ABUSES. 477 



certain. The tush will sometimes be blunt at eight; at other 

 times it will remain pointed at eighteen. The upper tush, 

 although the latest in appearing,. is soonest worn away. 



"Are there any circumstances to guide our judgment after 

 this? There are those which will prepare us to guess at the 

 age of the horse, or to approach within a few years of it, until 

 he becomes very old ; but there are none which will enable 

 us accurately to determine the question, and the indica- 

 tions of age must now be taken from the shape of the upper 

 surface of the nippers. At eight, they are all oval, the 

 length of the oval running across from tooth to tooth ; 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 are 

 rounded. At nine, the center 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 thir- 

 teen, the oorner 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 oft*, and the central teeth are again oval, but in a re- 

 versed direction, viz., from outward, inw^ard ; and at twenty- 

 one they all wear this form. This is the opinion of some 

 Continental veterinary surgeons, and Mr. Percivall first pre- 

 sented them to us in an English dress. 



" It would be folly to expect perfect accuracy at this ad- 

 vanced age of the horse, when we are bound to confess that 

 the rules which we hi^e laid down for determining this mat- 

 ter at an earlier period, although they are recognized by 

 horsemen generally, and referred to in courts of justice, will 

 not guide us in any case. Stabled horses have the mark 

 sooner worn out than those that are at grass ; and the crib- 

 biter mav deceive the best judge by one or two years. The 

 age of the horse, likewise, being formerly calculated from 

 the first of May, it was exceedingly difficult, or almost im- 

 possible, to determine whether the animal was a late foal of 

 one year, or an early one of the next. At nine or ten, the 



