226 
MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIER T. 
having shot forward; consequently their surface is lying 
obliquely, and hence their elongated form from front to 
back, as more particularly developed in the comer teeth. 
The tushes are considerably larger in proportion than in a 
horse under twenty years of age. 
We may briefly remark that the incisory teeth of the 
horse remain as guides to mark throughout the whole of 
life his age, and indicate the successive degrees up from 
twenty-one to twenty-three years : first, by the order in 
which they appear; second, by the obliteration of their 
outer cavity ; third, by the changes and disappearance of 
their funnel; and fourthly and lastly, by the successive 
shapes assumed by their table after nine years of age, and 
which are the oval, the rounded, the triangular, and the 
biangular. The appearance of the incisors, and the oblite¬ 
ration of their mark, are unquestionably the most certain 
indications by which to judge of the age of a horse. During 
the four or five years that follow the obliteration of the 
mark, the knowledge of the age is still tolerably certain, 
because there are many modes of correcting it; such as the 
condition of the termination of the blind pouch of the 
funnel next the root, the general appearance of the tootn, 
and the form that the table of the tooth assumes. The 
periods of triangularity and biangularity present the greatest 
difficulties ; the data of these latter periods are most com¬ 
monly approximations ; nay, it is next to impossible to pro¬ 
nounce a positive opinion as to the age of a horse from 
seventeen to twenty. 
That the reader may more easily comprehend and consult 
the data for judging of the age of a horse, we have given the 
following table, which affords a comprehensive view of all the 
periods which we have more fully detailed in the preceding re¬ 
marks, a reference to each being noted at the end of the table. 
