124 SEVEN AND EIGHT YEARS OLD 



to come to when there is both discolouration and 

 irregularity. At six years old the mouth is shorter, 

 broader, and fainter, and in the corner nippers the 

 edges of the enamel are more regular, and the surface 

 is evidently worn. The tush has attained to its full 

 growth, being nearly or quite an inch in length, convex 

 outwardly and concave inwardly, and tending to a 

 point, and the extremity somewhat recurved. The 

 third grinder is fairly up, and all the grinders are level 

 with each other. Now, or at a period of six months 

 earlier, the horse's mouth may be said to be perfected ; 

 all the teeth are fully grown, and have hitherto sus- 

 tained no material injury. 



At seven years old the mark is worn out in the four 

 central nippers, and is also fast disappearing in the 

 corner ones. The tush is also beginning to be altered. 

 It is rounded at the point, rounded at the edges, still 

 round outside, and commencing to get round inside. 



At eight years old the mark has gone from all the 

 lower nippers, and the tush is rounder in every way. 

 The mark is now said to be out of the mouth. The 

 horse is ' past mark ' ; and no positive opinion as to 

 age can be given by means of the lower nippers. 

 Dishonest dealers can, however, make a mark in the 

 lower nippers by 'bishoping.' This practice, by the 

 way, takes its name from the scoundrel who invented 

 it, and is performed in the following manner. The 

 horse is 'thrown,' and a mark is burned with a hot 

 iron into the tooth. It is, however, at best but so 

 clumsy an imitation of the natural mark that no one 

 but a fool would be taken in by it, for it would be at 

 once apparent to anyone who was conversant with the 

 natural marks in the mouth of a horse. 



