Growth, Decay, and Death. 399 



The influence of feeding on development is most remark- 

 able : not only does the body increase in size and weight, 

 but the animal presents the appearance of the adult, so 

 that a thoroughbred at two years old is furnished and looks 

 as old as an ordinary horse at four years old. 



The completion of dentition marks the age of maturity ; 

 the uncastrated animal presents very distinctive features 

 from the female, viz., greater bulk, a heavy crest and neck, 

 and a harsher voice; the castrated horse more closely 

 resembles the mare. No such difference as is observable 

 in the human family exists between the male and female 

 of the horse tribe : the mare arrives at maturity at the 

 same time as the horse ; and the castrated animal is not 

 deficient in stamina, strength, or capacity for work ; more- 

 over, castration in the horse does not lead to a deposition of 

 fat in the body. 



Decay. — It is doubtful what age a horse would live to if 

 not subjected to civilization ; we may safely say that at 

 seventeen years old the powers of life in the majority of 

 animals are on the wane, though many at this period may 

 be found in full possession of life and vigour; these are 

 probably cases of the survival of the fittest, and cannot be 

 taken as a general guide. 



Doubtless the work performed by horses is the chief 

 cause of their rapid decay ; but apart from this, changes 

 in their teeth, such as the wearing away of the molars, 

 appear to preclude many of them from reaching a ripe old 

 age, though instances are on record of horses attaining the 

 age of thirty-five, forty-five, fifty, and one animal is known 

 to have lived to sixty-two years of age. 



Blaine* appears to have gone very carefully into the 

 question of old age in equines, and he drew the following 

 comparison : 



' A parallel drawn between the ages of horses and of men 



will fully convince us of the error of fixing the decay of the 



horse at eight years from his birth. A very considerable 



attention to the subject, over a wide field of observation, has 



* ' Encyclopaedia of Rural Sports.' 



