306 DENTITION AND AGE AS SHOWN BY TEETH, ETC. 



sumption of the horse's age may be drawn from the appearance 

 of the roots of the teeth. The enamel extends but a little be- 

 low the gum. The front teeth of some aged horses wear down 

 quite close to the gums, while those of others grow long and in 

 some cases require cutting off to enable the grinders or molar 

 teeth to come together to perform their mission. 



Those horses running to grass in summer, using their nip- 

 pers to gather their food, usually have much shorter nippers or 

 front teeth than those kept up to hay and grain during the whole 

 time. 



Aside from the teeth there are indications of age of a gen- 

 eral character deserving especial notice, such as the general ex- 

 pression of the horse, the deepening of the hollows over the 

 eyes, shrinking and hanging down of the lips, the appearance of 

 white hairs, particularly about the eyes, sharpening of the 

 withers, swaying of the back, etc., etc. 



The means of ascertaining the allotted period of the horse's 

 age are as unsatisfactory as that of man. A horse is supposed 

 to be as old at twenty-five years as a man at seventy, which is 

 generally accepted as his allotted period of existence on this 

 earthly sphere. 



So many circumstances attend the domesticated animal, 

 tending to the more or less rapid destruction of his system, that 

 it is very difficult, if not impossible, to correctly ascertain the 

 number of his years were the laws of his being never violated. 



A few cases of great age are on record. Blaine tells of a 

 gentleman who owned three horses, which died at the respectr 

 ive ages of thirty-five years, thirty-seven years, and thirty-nine 

 years. Percival gives an account of a barge-horse that attained 

 the great age of sixty -two years. 



Perhaps it would be as safe to place the natural age of a 

 horse at twenty-five years as that of man at seventy. Perhaps as 

 great a per cent, of horses live beyond that age as of the human 

 that lives over " three-score years and ten." 



Zoologists claim that the natural life of an animal is five 

 times the time it takes to attain its full growth and maturity. 



