Horse

HORSE. Zoologically considered the family to which the horse belongs consists of a single genus, equus, 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 equus, 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 domestication 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 certainly was used for draft. For at that time Pharaoh had numerous war chariots drawn by horses. It' was from Egypt that Solomon received his great stud of horses, and Hemdo tus states that 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 wi to his original country, his habits, stature, or color. Of all the so-called 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 sire, color, and characteristics; or has become so widely spread over the earth as the horse. In Iceland 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 racer of England and America, the mighty Clydesdale, or Norman, the long-backed Flemish, the active Barb, or the compact 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 capacious, open, and the covering thin and mobile. He is most sensi tive to sound, his quill ear catching the slightest sound long before it is apparent to his master; The eye is also indicative the character and temper of the horse. A bold, full, mild, but bright eye, shows the perfection of temper in a horse; if much of .the white is shown, or if he has the habit of showing much of the white in looking behind, one may be 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 much a natural gait as the walk, and generally used by colts of every breed, so in the domesti-' sated 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 called natural gaits. The age of the horse may only be told with any certainty by his teeth. The ancients understood this perfectly. Xenophon, in a work on horsemanship, alludes to the custom in selecting cavalry horses for the Gre cian armies, to the rejection of such 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 forty: six nippers or incisors, two canines or tushes and twelve‘molars in each jaw. The mare lacks the canines. The dental system is: six incisors in the upper and six in the lower jaw; one canine in each Cie 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, succeeded by the permanent teeth. The canines are wanting in the colt'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 composition 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 vgearing 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 accurately described the teeth and their characteristics, which, with the illustrations will enable any one to judge rectly of the age of the horse. The statement is as 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, and 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 perfect height. This cut will then represent the

appearance of the 'mouth, Fig. 2. At two months, the center nippers will have reached 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, which 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 able difference, 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 almost 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 iu gathering up the animal's food, and in such employment even this hard substance must be gradually' worn away, a portion 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 surface, with the outer edge rising in a slanting direction above 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, and 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 back 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 born 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, but attrition soon wears 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 comes up, and the yearling has then, or soon afterwards, six nippers and four grind ers above and below 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 fiat. At two years-this will be more manifest. The accompanying cut, Fig. 5, deserves attention, as giving an accurate 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'sjaws, but when these hones have expanded with the increasing growth of the animal, the teeth are separated too far from 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 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 sometimesto 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.