KLEMENT& OF HIPPOLOQV. 21 



CHAPTER II. 



: [; AGE, AS DETERMINED BY THE TEETH. 



The value of a horse, after he reaches maturity, is propor- 

 tioned to the remaining period of his usefulness.' It is, there- 

 foie, of importance to a purchaser to know approximately, and 

 without being compelled to rely on the testimony of others, the 

 age of the horse he is buying. 



It is very easy for anyone, however little he may be familiar 

 with horses, to distinguish the young from the very old animal. 

 Signs of wear are apparent in the stiffened action, in blemishes 

 on the members, and, more than all, in the elasticity of the skin. 

 Aristotle says: "If, in pinching up the skin from the lips, it is 

 promptly retracted, the animal is young; if it remains wrinkled 

 for a long time, he is old." 



Because the coat hides the skin, those signs of age that the 

 skin betrays in hairless animals cannot be detected in the in- 

 tervening years between youth and old age. For our guide 

 during this period we must go to the teeth, which appear and 

 grow and change their shape according to "laws that are fairly 

 regular. 



Up to five years the teeth give very rfeliable information; 

 from five to nine this information is good; after nine the limits 

 of error increase rapidly, and little reliance can be placed on the 

 teeth as a sole means of judging age.* 



*There are horsemen who claim to judge accurately the age of all 

 horses, solely by their teeth. Such a claim, while honestly made by 

 many competent horsemen of experience, is often not made good in 

 practice. The teeth do furnish an excellent suggestion as to the age 

 of the horse — good enough to protect the careful observer from impo- 

 sition — that is all that should be claimed for them by the' amateur 



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