AGE. 73 



ones out of their place. When he arrives at the age 

 of three, he sheds one more on each side of the middle 

 teeth ; when four years old, he sheds his two corner 

 and last of his fore teeth ; between four and five he 

 cuts his under tusks, and when five will cut his 

 upper tusks, and have a mouth full and complete; 

 his teeth appearing to have their full growth, except 

 the tusks, and will be even, regularly placed, and 

 pretty much grooved on the inside, with hollows of 

 a very dark brown colour. There is always a very 

 plain difference between colts' and horses' teeth; the 

 colts' being without grooves and hollows, and never 

 so large and strong. Some horses are without upper 

 tusks even to the end of their lives; but this is not 

 common. The appearance of the lower tusks, and 

 them fully grown, is the most certain proof that the 

 horse is five years old, even if one of his colt's teeth 

 remains unshed. At six years old, the grooves and hol- 

 lows in a horse's mouth begin to fill up a little, and their 

 tusks have their full growth, with their points sharp, 

 and a little concave or hollow on the inside. At seven 

 years old, the grooves and hollows will be pretty well 

 filled below, except the corner teeth, leaving where the 

 dark brown hollows formerly were, little brown spots 

 At eight, the whole of the hollows and grooves are 

 filled up, and you see the appearance of what is termed 

 smooth below. At nine years old, there very often 

 appears a small bill to the outside corner teeth ; the 

 point of the tusk is worn off, and the part that was 

 concave begins to fill up and become rounding ; the 

 squares of the middle teeth begin to disappear, and the 

 gums leave them small and narrow at top. Dealers 

 in horses sometimes drill or hollow the teeth with 

 a graver, and black the hollows by using a hot iron, 

 for the purpose of passing an old horse for a young 



