58 THK IIOKSE. 



tliors of all ages, qualities, and conditions, from Pliny down to 

 Mr. Blaine, relating to the age to which individual horses have, 

 or have not, attained ; and some speculations regarding the age 

 to which horses — situated otherwise than they are, ever have 

 been, or, probably, ever will be situated — might possibly 

 attain. 



It being, however, my present object to look at horses as 

 they are, I shall assume the maximum average age of the horse 

 to be twenty-five years, and the same to be the extreme age of 

 the working horse. Of the latter twelve will be, it is likely, 

 about the average. 



How you shall know the age of a horse, is a matter of ques- 

 tion to most, of dispute to many, of experience to all. 



By the teeth, only, in my judgment, can the age be known 

 certainly / and by them, certainly, only until the ninth year. 



By certainly I mean this — that one may surely, and almost 

 without fail, sa}^ that this horse is older than nine years, but that 

 he cannot possibly say how mxicli older. 



The other signs, beyond the mai-k of the teeth, vary with 

 the variation of circumstances; and, with the double varia- 

 tion, opinions, or judgments as they are called, will yet farther 

 difi'er. 



The mark of the teeth, naturally, is invariable. By art or 

 rascality, when made to vary, the variation to a practised eye is 

 easily discoverable. That mark extends to the eighth year, 

 surely, and no farther. 



NATURAL niSTOET. 



" As a matter of civil economy," says Mr. Winter, in his 

 valuable book on the horse, from which I have already quoted, 

 "it is important to judge correctly of the age of our useful 

 servant, the horse. This is chiefly accomplished by observing 

 the natural changes, which occur in his teeth, the ])eriods at 

 which they appear, are shed and replaced, and the alterations 

 in their form and markings. 



" The teeth of most animals offer some criterion from which 

 their age can be estimated with more or less accuracy. * * 

 The teeth are nearly the sole indices of the age of the horse, 

 ass, elephant, camel, dog, and the polled varieties of the ox and 



