TO TELL THE AGE OF ANY HORSE
To tell the age of any horse
Inspect the lower jaw of course
The sixth front tooth the tale will tell And every doubt and fear dispel.
Two middle ‘nippers’ you behold,
Before the colt is two weeks old.
Before eight weeks two more will come
Eight months, the ‘corners’ cut the gums.
Two outside grooves will disappear
From the middle two before one year.
In two years from the second pair,
In three, the ‘corners’ too, are bare.
.
At three, the middle ‘nippers’ drop,
At four the second pair can’t stop,
When five years old, the third pair goes,
And then a whole 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 the horsemen know,
The oval teeth three sided grow:
They longer get, project before,
Till twenty, when we know no more!