TEETH
—are the arrangement of small bones in the mouth of a horse, for the particular purpose of mastication; and by which the AGE also may be ascertained. (See Colt.) The teeth are of a much harder texture than any other bones in the body, which seems to have been necessary for the execution of the office they are assigned by Nature. A horse come to maturity, is in possession of forty teeth, (including the tushes,) which are thus distinguished: four-and-twenty of these are called grinders, and situate on the sides of the upper and lower jaws above the tushes, and are of no use in discovering the age. With respect to the other sixteen, twelve of them are called colt's teeth till upwards of two years old, (when they begin to shed;) and the remaining four are denominated tushes; but they never make the least appearance till rising, or full five years old. The twelve colt's teeth are six in front above, and the same below; four of these (that is, two above, and two below) exfoliate annually, beginning at the middle two, and continue shedding the neighbouring two in succession for the next two years, till they are succeeded by the entire new set in front, when the horse is five years old.
These new teeth, upon their appearance, are distinguished by different appellations: the first four are called nippers; the next, middle teeth; and the last, corner teeth. The four nippers are the centrical four, (that is, two above, and two below:) these he sheds when about two years and a half old, varying a little in the time, according as he may have been an early or a backward colt. The middle teeth, as they are called, one on each side the nippers above and below, exfoliate, and are followed by others about the same time the following year, when the colt is three and a half, (called, rising four:) in this state the teeth continue till the decline of the following year, when the corner teeth are shed likewise, and it is then said, he has lost all his colt's teeth: when the successors to the corner teeth are full shelled on both sides, the horse has then completed his fifth year. It is a practice with DEALERS in general, so soon as they have purchased a four year old in a country fair, to immediately wrench out the corner teeth with a key, or some other convenient instrument, that its successor may have the credit of spontaneous appearance, upon which the horse is sold to an inexperienced purchaser as a FIVE YEAR OLD, though, in reality, no more than four.
The horse having completed his fifth year, will have a black cavity in every tooth above and below: but the inner edge of the five year old tooth at the corners, is not completely grown up till the last half of the sixth year, as may be seen by a reference to the Plate, Fig. 3; "Rising Six." When the horse is about four or five months beyond his sixth year, which is called six off, the black mark in the centrical teeth fill up by degrees; those standing next, fill up next in the same way; and in faint succession one pair to the other, till, at the seventh year, (when the horse is said to be aged,) the mark is fairly retained in only the corner teeth, which continues to decline during the year, and is generally obliterated by the time the horse is eight years old. The tushes begin to appear about four, or between that and the fifth year; they display themselves one above and one below, on each side, at a little distance from the corner teeth, without having been preceded by any colt's teeth in that spot since they were foaled. After a horse is eight years old, his age can only be guessed at by the length, and worn edges, of his teeth; which may always be nearly ascertained by any person a little accustomed to the examination.