Horse

HORSE. Zoologically considered the fainily to which the horse belongs consists of a single genus, opus, and is distinguished from all other quadrupeds by having only one apparent toe, and a single solid hoof on each foot, constitut ing the soliped, single-hoofed family of Cuvier's order, pachydermata. The different species of the genus Nuns, as the ass, zebra, quagga, etc., are all fertile together, and sometimes produce. fertile hybrids. That between the male ass and mare, the mule is only second in importance to the horse for performing labor. From the ease with which the progeny of horses that have run. wild for centuries, are broken in it is probable that horses were among the first animals domesticated by man. The time of the first dorhestieation of the horse is, however, lost in the obscurity of the far past, but is first mentioned in history as being in use among the Egyptians some 650 years after the biblical account of the deluge. At the time of the exodus of the Israelites the horse.eertainly was used for draft. For at that time Pharaoh had numerous war chariots drawn by horbes. It was from Egypt that Solomon received his great stud of horses, and Herodo t us states tha.t Xerxes obtained a portion of cavalry- from Ethiopia, and that of his native Indian troops some were on horseback and others in chariots. The horse has so long ceased to exist in a purely wild state, that nothing has .come down to us as to his original country, his habits, stature, or color. Of all the so-ealled wild horses, even those of Tartary are the progeny of animals escaped from a state of domestication. Few, if any, of our domestic animals have under gone such wide modification in size, color, and characteristics: or has become so widely spread over the earth as the horse. In Ieeland and the Shetland Isles of the North, he is dwarfed to little more than the size of a large sheep, his limbs short but strong, his form uncouth from his shaggy hair, his mane and tail massive, -coarse,. and tangled; how different from the high bred raeer of England and America, the mighty .Clydesdale, or Norman, the long-baeked Flemish, the active Barb, or the compa,et and beautiful Arab. A peculiarity of the horse, and one which should never be forgotten by the horse owner, is that he always breathes through his noStrils. Hence, in buying a horse, it should be especially noticed that his nostrils are eapaeious, open, and the covering thin and mobile. He is most sensi tive to sound, his quick ear catching the slightest sound long before it is apparent to his master. The eye is also indieative of the charaeter and temper of the horse. A bold, full, mild, but brtght eye, shows the perfection of temper in a horse; if mueh of the white is shown, or if he has the habit of showing much of the white in looking behind, one may he pretty sure that he is a rogue and not to be trusted. In the wild state the horse is thought by some to have had no intermediate gait between the walk and gallop; this, however, is mere conjecture, and undoubt edly incorrect. The trot is to all appearances as mueh a natural gait as the walk, and generally used by colts of every breed, so in the domesti .cated horse the walk, trot, and gallop are the natural gaits, all others having been taught him, until through heredity, some of them, as the pace, may be ealled natural gaits. The age of the horse may only be told with any certainty by his teeth. The aneients understood this perfectly. Xenophon, in a work on horsemanship, alludes to the custom in seleeting cavalry horses for the Gre .cian armies, to the rejeetion of sueh as have lost the dental mark. The examination of the teeth of horses to determine their age is also alluded to by various Roman writers, as Columella, Varro, and Virgilius. The teeth of the horse are f orty six nippers or ineisors, two canines or tushes and twelve molars in eaeh jaw. The mare lacks the canines. The dental system is: six ineisors in the upper and Six in the lower jaw; one canine in each side of the jaw of the male, female none; six molars in each side of the upper and lower jaw, thus making forty teeth in all. There are two sets the temporary or milk teeth, sueceeded by the permanent teeth. The canines. are wanting in the eolt's teeth, and in the permanent teeth of the mare, they seldom are apparent, though their mentary teeth may be found in the maxillary bone attached to the jaw. Three substances enter into the eomposition of the teeth, the enamel, the dental bone or ivory, and the cortical envelope surrounding the fang or root. The teeth, both incisors and grinders, are constantly being worn down at the crown by use, but this loss is supplied by gradual and continuous growth at the root. Thus upon this wearing away at the crown is based a perfected system by which the age of a horse may be pretty nearly told by an observing person. Mr. Youatt, than whom there is no better authority extant, in his treatise on the horse has very aecurately described the teeth and their eharaeteristics, which, with the illustrations will enable any one to judge reetly of the age of the horse. The statement is a,s follows: Seven or eight months before the foal is born, the germs or beginnings of the teeth are visible in the cavities of the jaws. At the time of birth, the first and second grinders have appeared, large, pared with the size of the jaw, seemingly filling it. In the course of seven or eight days the two center nippers are seen as here represented, Fig. 1. In the course of the first month the third grinder appears, above and below, arid not long after, and erally before six weeks have expired, another incisor above and below will be seen on each side of the two first, which have now considerably grown, but not attained their perfeet height. This cut will then represent the appearance of the mouth, Fig. 2. At two months, the center nippers will have reaehed their natural level, and between the second and third month the second pair will have overtaken them. They will then begin to wear a little, and the outer edge. whieh was at first somewhat raised and sharp, is brought to a level with the inner edge, and so the mouth continues until some time between the sixth and ninth month, when another nipper gins to appear on each side of the two first, making six above and below, and completing the colt's mouth; after which the only observ able differenee, until tween the second and third year, is in the wear and tear of these teeth. These teeth are covered with a polished and ceedingly hard enamel; indeed it is so hard that it ahnost bids defiance to the action of a file. It spreads over that portion of the tooth which appears above the gum, and not only so, but as they are to be so much employed in nipping the grass, and in gathering up the animal's food, and in such employment even this hard substance must be gradually worn away, a port,ion of it, as it passes over the upper surface of the teeth, is bent inward, and sunk into the body of the teeth, and forms a little pit in them. The inside and bottom of this pit being blackened by the food, constitute the mark of the teeth, by the gradual disappear ance of which, in consequence of the wearing down of the teeth, we are enabled for several years to judge of the age of the animal. The colt's nipping teeth are rounded in front, some what hollow toward the mouth, and present at first a cutting surfaee, with the outer edge rising in a slanting direction ahove the inner edge. This, however, soon begins to wear down, until both surfaces are level, and the mark, which was originally long and narrow, becomes shorter, a.nd wider and fainter. At six months the four nippers are wearing to a level. The cut, Fig. 3, will convey some idea of the appearance of the teeth at one year. The four middle teeth are almost level, and the corner ones are be coming so. The mark in the two middle teeth is wide and faint, in the two next teeth it is longer. darker and narrower. In the corner teeth it is longest, darkest and narrowest. The hack teeth or grinders will not guide us far in ascertaining the age of the animal, for we can not easily inspect them, but there are some interesting particulars con nected with them. The foal is horn with two grinders in each. jaw, above and below, or they appear within two or three days after the birth. Before the expiration of the month they are succeeded by a third, more backward. The crowns of the grinders are entirely covered with enamel on the top and sides, hut attrition soon w ears it away from the top, and there remains a compound surface of alternate layers of crusted substance, enamel and ivory, which are employed in grinding down the hardest portion of the food. Nature has, therefore, made an additional pro vision for their strength and endurance. Fig. 4 represents a grinder sawed across. The five dark spots represent bony matter; the parts covered with lines of enamel, and the white spaces a strong bony cement uniting the other portions of the teeth. At the completion of the first year a fourth grinder usu ally conies up, and the yearling has then, or soon afterwards, six nippers and four grind ers above and helow in each jaw, which, with the alteration in the nippers we have just described, will enable us to calculate the age of the foal, subject to some variations arising from the period of weaning, and the nature of the food. At the age of one year and a half, the mark in the central nippers will be much shorter and fainter; that in the two other pairs will have undergone an evident change, and all the nippers will be flat. At two Years this will be more manifest. The accompanying cut, Fig. 5, deserves attention, as giving an aceurate repre sentation of the nippers in the lower jaw of a two-year-old colt. About this period a fifth grinder will appear, and now likewise, will com mence another process. The first teeth are adapted to the size and wants of the young ani mal. They are sufficiently large to occupy and fill the colt's jaws, but when these bones have expanded with the increasing growth of the animal, the teeth are separated too far front each other to be useful, and another and larger set is. required. The second teeth then begin to push up from below, and the fangs of the first are absorbed, until the former approach the surface of the gum, when they drop out. Where the temporary teeth do not rise immediately under the milk teeth, but by their sides, the latter being pressed sideways are absorbed throughout their whole length. They grow narrow, are pushed out of place, and cause inconvenience to the gums, and sometimes to the cheek. They should be extracted. The teeth which first appeared are first renewed, and therefore the front or first grinders are changed at the age of two years. During the period between the falling out of the central milk teeth and the coming up of the permanent ones, the colt, having a broken mouth, may find some difficulty in grazing. If he should fall away considerably in condition, he should be fed with mashes and corn, or cut feed. The next cut, Fig. 6, will represent a three-year-old mouth. The central teeth are larger than the others, with two grooves in the outer convex sur face, and the mark is long, narrow, deep and black. Not having yet attained their full growth, they are rather lower than the others. The mark in the two next nippers is nearly worn out and it is. wearing away in the corner nippers. The ages 'of all horses used to be reckoned from the first of May, but some are foaled even as early as Janu .ary, and being actually four months over the two years, if they have been well nursed and fed, and are strong and large, they may, with the inex perienced, have an additional year put upon them. The central nippers are punched or -drawn out, and the others appear three or four months earlier than they otherwise would. In the natural process they would only rise by long pressing upon the first teeth, and causing their absorption. But opposition from the first set being removed, it is easy to imagine that their progress will be more rapid. Three or four months will be gained in the appearance of these teeth, and these three or four months will enable the breeder to term him a late colt of the preced ing year. To him, however, who is accustomed to horses, the general form of the animal, the little development of the forehead, the continuanee of the mark on the next pair of nippers, its more evi dent existence in the corner ones, some enlarge ment or irregularity about the gums from the violence used in forcing out the teeth, the small growth of the first and fifth grinders, and the non-appearance of the sixth grinder, which, if it be not through the gum at three years old is swelling under it, and preparing to get through —any or all of these circumstances, carefully .attended to, will be a sufficient security against deception. A horse at three years old ought to have the central permanent nippers growing, the other two pairs wasting, six grinders in each jaw, above and below, the first and fifth level, the others and the sixth protruding. The sharp edge of new incisors, although it could not well be expressed in the cut, will be very evident when compared with the old teeth. As the per manent nippers wear and continue to grow, a narrow portion of the cone-shaped tooth is 'exposed by the attrition, and they look as if they had been compressed, but it is not so. Not only will the mark be wearing out, but the crowns of the teeth will be sensibly smaller At three years and a half, or between that and four, the next pair of nippers will be changed, and the mouth at that time can not be mistaken. The central nippers will have attained nearly their full growth. A vacuity will be left where the second stood, or they will begin to peep above the gum, and the corner ones will be diminished in breadth, worn down, and the mark becoming small and faint. At this period, likewise, the second pair of grinders will be shed. Previously to this may be the attempt of the dealer to give his three-year-old an additional year, but the fraud will be detected by an examinatfon similar to that which has been already described. At four years, the central nippers will be fully developed; the sharp edge somewhat worn off, and the mark shorter, wider, fainter. The next pair will be up, but they will be small, with the mark deep and extending quite across them, as in Fig. 7. The corner nippers will be larger than the inside ones, yet smaller than they were, and flat, and the mark nearly effaced. The sixth grinders will have risen to a level with the others, and the tushes will begin to appear. Now, more than at any other time, will the dealer be anxious to put an additional year on the animal, for the difference between a four-year old colt and a five-year-old horse, in strength, utility and value, is very great; but the want of wear in the other nippers, the small size of the corner ones, the little growth of the tush, the smallness of the second grinder, the low fore hand, the legginess of the colt, and the thickness and little depth of the mouth, will, to the man of _ _ c.ommon experience among horses, at once detect the cheat. The tushes are four in number, two in each jaw, situated between the nippers and the grinders, much nearer to the former , than to the latter, and nearer in the lower jaw than the upper, but this distance increases in both jaws with the age. In shape, the tush some what resembles a cone; it protrudes from the gum ahout an inch, and is sharp-pointed and curved. The appearance of this lush in the horse may vary from four years to four years and six months. It can only be accelerated a few weeks by cutting the gum over it. At four years and a half, or between that and five, the last important change takes place in the mouth of the horse. The corner nippers are shed, and the permanent ones begin to appear. The cen tral nippers are considerably worn, and the next pair are commencing to show marks of usage. The tush has now protruded, and is generally a full half inch in height; externally, it has a, rounded prominence, with a groove on either side; and it is evidently hollowed within. The reader scarcely needs to be told that after the rising of the corner nipper, the animal changes its name. The colt becotnes a horse, the filly a tnare. At five years, the horse's mouth is altnost perfect—Fig. 8. The corner nippers are quite up, with the long deep mark irregular in the inside, and the other nippers hearing evident tokens of increased wearing. The tush is much grown; the grooves have almost or quite disap peared, and the outer surface is regularly con vex. It is still as concave witMn, and with the edge nearly as sharp, as it was six months before. The sixth molar is quite up, and the third molar is wanting. This last circumstance, if the general appearance of the animal, and particularly his forehand, and the wearing of the center nippers, and the growth and shapes of the tushes be likewise carefully attended to, will prevent deception, if a late four-year-old is attempted to be substituted for a five-year-old. 'The nippers may be brought up a few months before their time, and the tushes a few weeks, but the grinder is with difficulty displaced. The

three last grinden and the tushes are never shed. At six years—see Fig. 9—the mark on the central nippers is worn out. There will still be a differ ence of color in the center of the tooth. The cement filling up the hole, made by the dipping of the enamel, will present a browner hue than the other part of the tooth, and it will he evi dently surrounded by an edge of enamel, and there will remain even a little depression in the center, and also a depression round the case of enarnel; but the deep hole in the center of the teeth, with the blackened surface which it pre sents, and the elevated edge of enamel, will have disappeared. Persons not much accus tomed to horses have been puzzled here. They expected to find a plain surface of uniform color, and knew not what conclusion to draw when there was both discoloration and irregu larity. In the next incisors the mark is shorter, broader, and fainter, and in the corner teeth the edges of the enamel are more regular, and the surface is evidently worn. The tush has attained its full growth, being nearly or quite an inch long, convex outward, concave vvithin, tending to a point, and the extremity somewhat curved. The third grinder is fairly up, and all the grinders are level. The horse may now be said to have a perfect mouth. All the teeth are produced, fully grown, and have hitherto sus tained no material injury. Dining these impor tant changes of the teeth, the animal has suf fered less than could have been supposed possi ble. At seven years—see Fig. 10—the mark, in the way in which we have described it, is worn out in the four central nippers, and fast wearing away in the corner teeth; the tush also is begin ning to be altered. It will be found that it is rounded at the point, rounded_at the edges, still round without, and beginning to get round inside. At eight years old, the tush is rounder in every way; the mark is gone from all the bottom nippers, and it may almost be said to be out of the mouth. There is nothing remaining in the bottom nippers that can afterward clearly show the age of the horse, or to justify the most experienced examiner in giving a positive opinion. Dishonest dealers have been said to resort to a method of prolonging the mark in the lower nippers. It is called Bishoping, from the name of the,scoundrel who invented it. The horse of eight or nine years old—for his mouth, see Fig. 11—is thrown, and with an engraver's tool a hole is dug in the now almost plain surface of the corner teeth, in shape resembling the mark yet left in those of a seven-year-old horse. The hole is then burned with a heated iron, and a permanent black stain is left. The next pair of nippers are sometimes slightly touched. An ignorant man would be very easily deceived by this trick; but the irreg-ular appearance of the cavity, the diffusion of the black stain around the tushes, the sharpened edges and concave inner surface of which can never be given again, the marks on the upper nippers, together with the general conformation of the horse, can never deceive the careful examiner. Horsemen, after the animal is eight years old, are accustomed to look to the nippers in the upper jaw, and some conclusion has been drawn from the appearances which they present. It can not be doubted that the mark remains in them for sortie years after it has been obliterated in the nippers of the lower jaw. There are various opinions as to the intervals between the disappearance of the marks from the different cutting teeth of the upper jaw. Some have averaged it at two years, some at one. Dr. Youatt was inclined to adopt the latter opinion, and then the age will be thus determined. At nine years the mark will be worn from the middle nippers, from the next pair at ten, and from all the upper nippers af eleven. During these periods the tush is like wise undergoing a manifest change. It is blun ter, shorter and rounder. In what degree this takes place in the different periods, long and favorable opportunities can alone enable the horseman to decide. The alteration in the form of the tushes is frequently uncertain. It will sometimes be blunt at eight, and at others remain pointed at eighteen. After eleven, and until the horse is very old, the age may be guessed at with some degree of confidence, from the shape of the upper surface, or extremity of the nippers. At eight they are all oval, the length of the oval running across from tooth to tooth; but as the horse gets older, the teeth diminish in size—and this commencing in their width and not in their thiclmess. They become a little apart from become less prominent, and their regular diminu tion will designate increa,sing age. A t eleven or twelve, the lower nippers change their original upright direction, and project forward horizon tally, and become of a yellow color. The general indications of old age, independent of the teeth, are the deepening of the hollows over the eyes; gray hairs, and particularly over the eyes, and about the muzzle; thinness and hanging down of the lips; sharpness of the withers, sinking of the back, lengthening of the quarters; and the disap pearance of windgalls, spavins, and tumors of every kind. Horses, kindly and not prematurely used, sometimes live to between thirty-five and • forty-five years of age; and Mr. Percival gives an account of a barge horse that died in his sixty second year. As indicating what the best horses of the ancients were like, also as showing how near they approached to what would now-a-days be each other, and their surfaces become round instead of oval. At nine, the center nippers are evidently so; at ten, the others begin to have the oval shortened. At eleven, the second pair of nippers are quite rounded, and at thirteen, the corner ones have also that appearance. At fourteen, the faces of the central nippers become somewhat triangular. At seventeen, they are all so. At nineteen, the angles begin to wear off, and the central teeth are again oval, but in a reversed direction ; viz., from outward, inward, and at twenty-one they all wear this form. It would of course be folly to expect any thing like a cer tainty in an opinion of the exact age of an old horse, as drawn from the above indications. Stabled horses have the marks sooner worn out than those that are at grass, and crib-biters still sooner. At nine or ten, the bars of the mouth called a well muscled horse of all work, or a good roadster, the description of Xenophon in his instructions are as correct to-day as when written over 2,200 years ago, as follows : First, he says, we will write, how one may be the least deceived in the purchase of horses. It is evident, then, that of the unbroken colt one must judge by the bodily construction; since, if he bas never been backed, he will afford no very ckar evidences of his 'spirit. Of his body, then, we say that it is necessary first to examine the feet ; for, as in a house it mat ters not how fine may be the superstructure, if there be not sufficient foundations, so in a war horse there is no utility, no, not if he have all other points perfect, but be badly footed. But in examining the feet, it is befitting first to look to the horny portion of the hoofs, for those horses which have the horn thick, are far superior in their feet to those which have it thin. Nor will it be well if one fail, next, to observe whether the hoofs be upright, both before and behind, or low and flat to the ground ; for high hoofs keep the frog at a distance from the earth, while the flat tread with equal pressure on the soft and hard parts of the foot, as is the case with bandy-legged men. And Simon justly observes, that well-footed horses can be known by the sound of their tramp, for the hollow hoof rings like a cymbal, when it strikes the solid earth. But having begun from below, let us ascend to the other parts of the body. It is needful, then, that the parts above the hoof and below the fetlocks (pasterns) be not too erect, like those of the goat ; for legs of this kind, being stiff and inflexible, are apt to jar the rider, and are more liable to inflammation. The bones must not, however, be too low and springy, for in that case the fetlocks are liable to be abraded and wounded, if the horse be galloped over clods or stones The bones of the shanks