34 Centaur ; 



are acquainted witli the true marks, will perceive tlie cheat 

 by the roundness and bluutness of the tushes, by the colour 

 of the false mark, which is generally blacker and more im- 

 pressed than the true mark, and by many other visible 

 tokens which denote the advanced age of a horse. After a 

 horse has passed his eighth year, and sometimes at seven, 

 nothing actually certain is reckoned to be decided by the 

 mouth. Some horses have but indifferent mouths when they 

 are young, and soon lose their mark ; others have good 

 mouths for a long time ; the teeth being white, even, and 

 regular, sometimes till thej^ are sixteen and upwards, with 

 many other marks of freshness and vigour. But when a 

 horse comes to be ver}^ old, the fact may be discovered by 

 several indications, the constant attendants of age, viz. : — 

 his gums wear away, and leave his teeth long and naked at 

 the roots ; the teeth also grow yellow, and sometimes 

 brownish. The bars of the mouth, which in a young horse 

 are always fleshy, and form so many distinct ridges, in an 

 old horse are lean, dry and smooth. The eye pits in a young 

 horse (except those said to come off old stallions) are 

 generally tilled up with flesh, and look plump and smooth, 

 whereas they are sunk and hollow in an old horse, which 

 gives him a ghastly and melancholy aspect. 



Horses have been known to live for thirty and forty years, 

 but, from over-exertion and ill-usage frequently die, or are 

 slaughtered, before they reach ten. 



To o-ive the growth and deca}^ of a horse's mouth. The 

 first year he has his foal teeth, which are only grinders and 

 o-atherers ; the second, the four foremost change, and appear 

 browner and bigger than the rest; the third year he changes 

 the teeth next to these, leaving no apparent foal teeth, but 

 two on each side above and two below ; the fourth year, the 

 teeth next to these are changed, and no foaling teeth are left, 

 but one on each side above and below ; at five, his foremost 

 teeth are all changed, and the tushes on each side are 

 complete ; those which come in the places of the last foaling 

 teeth being hollow, and having a little black speck in the 

 midst, which is called the '' mark in a horse's mouth ; " this 

 continues till eight years of age ; at six, he puts out new 

 tushes, near which appears a little circle of young fleshy at 

 the bottom of the tush, the tushes withal being small, white, 

 short and sharp ; at seven, the teeth are all at their growth, 

 and the mark in the mouth appears very plain ; at eight, all 

 his teeth are i'ull, ♦ smooth and plain, and the mark scarce 



