CHOOSING A HORSE 



13 



are large, blunt, and round. The 

 nippers may have grown out so long 

 as to prevent the grinders from 

 meeting, in which case a horse will 

 spit out his food after masticating a 

 part of it. If the nippers are rasped 

 off, the grinders will meet, and the 

 horse's life will be somewhat pro- 

 longed. 



Irregularities in the teeth. — It 

 often happens that the teeth are' 

 not regular, in which case the horse 

 is said to have a false mouth. These 

 irregularities may occur in the 

 number : there may be' more or less 

 than the regular number — thirty- 

 six in mares or forty in horses ; they 

 may occur in the form of the teeth or 

 the uniting of two teeth ; they may 

 occur because one jaw happens to 

 be longer or shorter than the other ; 

 they may come as the result of 

 cribbing, some horses have the bad 

 habit of biting the stall fixtures or 

 other surrounding objects, thus break- 

 ing off the free borders of the teeth, 

 which make the teeth irregular and 

 which must not be confused with 

 normal wear. Such cases can usu- 

 ally be recognized by the broken-off 

 particles and the roughed surface. 



Irregularities may result from the 

 employment of fraudulent means, 

 the horseman striving to give the 



Fig. 15. — Side View of a 

 Twenty- one-teak-old 

 Mouth. Note the sharp 

 angle at which the teeth 

 meet. 



Fig. 16. — Fkont View 

 OF A Twenty-one- 

 year-old Mouth. 



Fig. 17. — Front Teeth in 

 Upper Jaw at Thirty 

 Years of Age. 



