12/21/2021
To tell the age of any horse,
Inspect the lower jaw, of course.
Those six front teeth the tale will tell,
And every fear and doubt dispel.
Two middle nippers you behold
When the c**t is two weeks old.
Before eight weeks, two more will come,
At eight months, corners cut the gum.
The outside grooves will disappear
From middle two in just one year.
At two years old, the second pair
Will show these corners, too, are bare.
Again at two, the nippers drop,
At three, the second pair can't stop.
When four years old, the third pair goes,
At five, a full new set he shows.
The deep black spots will pass from view,
At six years, from the middle two.
The second pair at seven years;
At eight, the spot each corner clears.
From middle nippers, upper jaw,
At nine, the black spots will withdraw.
The second pair at ten are white;
Eleven finds the corners light.
As time goes on, all horsemen know
The oval teeth three-sided grow.
They longer get, project before,
'Til twenty, when we know no more.
***
Prof. O.R. Gleason
‘The Handbook of Horses’
c. 1890s.
***
This old news clipping, from the Toronto Star Weekly (1910-1973) was originally saved by my grandfather. He sent the yellowed scrap on to me when I was just a little girl... and it was among my earliest goals, to commit the poem to memory.
