PARTS TO BE EXAMINED FOR DETERMINATION OF AGE. 645 



CHAPTER 11. 



THE PARTS TO BE EXAMINED FOR THE DETERMINATION OF THE 



AGE. 



However little one may be accustomed to the handling of horses, 

 it is not difficult to distinguish the young from tlie old. In the very 

 aged white hairs appear upon the region of the temples, around the 

 eyes, the nostrils, etc., when the robe is dark-colored ; the inferior ex- 

 tremity of the head is more pointed ; the lateral parietes of the face 

 are depressed. Besides, a roach-back, alterations of the axes of the 

 members, and blemishes of the members also denote a variable degree 

 of wear, often in a certain relation with the duration of this degenerated 

 existence. Every one is able to observe these facts ; but there are per- 

 sons who flatter themselves that they are able to estimate the age of the 

 horse by the sole examination of the jaws, or by other procedures of 

 equally trifling importance. It is upon these pretended means that our 

 attention will be arrested for an instant, to dispose of them once for all, 

 and warn the reader against those individuals who put them in practice. 



1. Examination of the Jaws. — We know that the teeth are so 

 much the more deeply incased in their alveoli as the animals are younger. 

 The teeth, in fact, are little by little pushed from their sockets in order 

 to compensate for the losses occasioned by the friction of mastication, 

 at the same time that the two tables of the maxillary bone are drawn 

 towards each other. It results from this that the free border of 

 the jaws becomes thinner with the progress of age. Nevertheless, the 

 recognition of this fact is incapable of furnishing the least precise 

 indication. With prolonged practice, we can thus distinguish young 

 horses from old horses, but we doubt whether such an examination 

 does not ordinarily expose one to error. 



2. Raising of the Skin of the Forehead or of the Cheek. 

 — " One of the signs by which a horse that is old can be recognized 

 consists in pinching, between the index finger and the thumb, the skin 

 of the forehead, raising it with the fingers from the parts below, and 

 then suddenly letting go ; if this skin then quickly returns to its 

 place and presents a very smooth surface, as it did before, the animal 

 will be very good to serve as a stallion, etc." ^ 



1 Ibn-el-Awamm, Le livre de I'Agiiculture. translated from the Arabian by J. J. Clement 

 Mullet, Paris, 1867, t. ii., 2e partie, pp. 27 et 58. (This book appears to have been written in the 

 twelfth century ol the Christian era.) 



