72 THE HORSE. 



It is easy for a judge to say tliat sucli a horse is nine years 

 old, 2ivA probdbhj not much over tliat age, accordingly as there 

 may be some remains of the mark in the upper nippers, and the 

 tushes be not extremely blunted. And the odds are that he will 

 not be far out of the way. 



Nor would I myself hesitate to purchase an aged horse, which 

 did not exhibit marks of extreme senility, if his general condi- 

 tion, soundness, state of health and activity were entirely satis- 

 factory, though I should not pretend to say myself, or to believe 

 any one else who should venture to say, that such horse was 

 above or below ten or twelve years. 



The marks of extreme senility, when it has already super- 

 induced emaciation, the shrinking of the textures, the failure of 

 the organs of sense, and the general decay of the physical sys- 

 tem, are not, of course, difficult to detect, or easy, when far 

 advanced, to mistake. 



But it is worthy of remark, that, although not, so far as I am 

 aware, commented upon by any of the authorities, the first marks 

 of such incipient senility are ot^en fallacious. 



Much stress is laid by many persons on the depth of the 

 super-orbital cavities, and yet more on the length and extreme 

 protrusion of the nippers beyond the gums, as also, in a less 

 degree, on the hollowness of the back. 



All these are doubtless indications of age, but I have many 

 times seen colts, got by sires i7i extreme age^ having all these in- 

 dications of advanced life, in a degree scarcely inferior to those 

 of the aged stallions, before they had yet acquired a full mouth, 

 much less lost the mark. 



And more than once or twice I have seen foals, newly 

 dropped, with the deep super-orbital cavities and hollow backs 

 bequeathed to them by their aged stallions before they had got 

 their colt's teeth. 



By this I do not intend to deny that the marks and indica- 

 tions insisted on in the above quotations have some foundation 

 in tact, and may, with very considerable qualification, be re- ^ 

 garded as signs whereon to hang a conjectural judgment, but I 

 do mean most distinctly to assert, that there is not, nor ever has 

 been, a horseman living, who, admitting that a horse is above 

 nine or ten, at the very farthest, can ascertain and guarantee, 



