CERTIFICATE OF DESCRIPTION. 817 



6th. Age and Peculiarities of the Teeth. The reader has 

 seen that, from three to six years, the various degrees of the dental 

 wear are indicated by special expressions : rising such age, having such 

 age, or past such age. These expressions are used in the description 

 when the horse has not yet reached his seventh year. When he 

 has passed this age, the facts are far from being as positive. On 

 the other hand, we should not fall into the contrary error by "saying 

 that the horse is old or aged. As the determination of the age is no 

 longer absolutely certain, we always make use of the word about as 

 a prefix. 



Examples : rising four years, five years, about eighteen or twenty 

 years old, about fifteen years old, nine years old, etc. 



In this connection it is also necessary to mention the peculiarities 

 and the anomalies of the teeth ; to recognize, for example, if the dental 

 cup is too deep or too shallow ; if the horse has supernumerary, double, 

 or badly-directed teeth, wolf-teeth, etc. ; if any teeth are missing ; if 

 those which he has are too long or too short, irregularly worn, etc. ; 

 finally, if some of them are worn abnormally from cribbing. These 

 peculiarities or anomalies constitute, nearly always, excellent signs of 

 identification. It is therefore necessary to note them with care. 



7th. Height. The height should be expressed in metres and 

 centimetres, or, what is more preferable and more customary, in hands, 

 allowing four inches to the hand. It is also necessary to say in what 

 manner it has been estimated. 



Example : height, sixteen and a half hands with standard or with 

 chain. 



When a certificate reads that a horse is " about . . . hands high/' it 

 is evident proof that it has been impossible for the operator to measure 

 the height with accuracy. 



8th. Blemishes and Peculiar Markings. It may happen in 

 many cases that there are no special remarks to be entered in this 

 paragraph. Be this as it may, we should here enumerate the various 

 blemishes, such as splints, ring-bones, spavin, curb, thoroughpin, wind- 

 galls, cicatrices on the shoulders and withers, on the knees, etc. ; in 

 a word, all the permanent blemishes. The same applies to the peculiar 

 markings of horses on breeding farms, those of certain public corpo- 

 rations, etc. 



9th. Diverse Peculiarities Foreign to the Coat. Fre- 

 quently, likewise, it might be advisable to mention in a certificate of 

 description that the horse has a tendency to walk in such or such a 

 gait, the amble, the running walk, for example ; that he has such or 



52 



