Q: Do you have any tips
for reading my horse's age from his mouth, and how accurate is this method?
A: The subject of ageing a horse by its teeth is a vast and detailed one, with some people claiming it is a highly accurate method, and others believing that it can only be used as a guide. I think that it is possible to gain a good idea of your horse's age from his teeth, although breed and diet do have an effect on them. Also, the older the horse gets, the less accurate this method becomes.
Listed below are just some of the indicators that can be used to age a horse by looking at its teeth:
¨ Baby (deciduous) teeth or adult (permanent) teeth:
If your horse is young, you can quite reliably age him by checking which adult teeth are present. All 24 of his baby teeth will fall out between the ages of 2 ˝ and 4 ˝ years - therefore seeing which ones are still present will give you a general idea of how old he is.
¨ Markings on the surface of the adult incisors (incisor teeth are the ones positioned at the very front of the mouth):
As the incisor teeth wear down, the pattern on their surface changes, so studying the type of pattern present will give you an idea of your horse’s age. If large dark hollows (known as the infundibulum or cups) are present in the tops of all upper and lower incisors, the horse will be roughly five to six years old. If they can only be seen in the upper incisors, he will be about eight years old or over, and if they are not visible on any of them, he will be about eleven years old or over. Following this you can look for a smallish dark stain in a white circle on the incisor surface, known as the ‘mark’. These should start to disappear from the lowers incisors when the horse is thirteen to fifteen years old, and from the upper incisors between the ages of sixteen and twenty, although this varies between breeds.
¨ Incisor Hooks:
Most horses between the ages of 7 and 9 years and 11 and 13 years will have a hook on the outside edge of the corner incisor in the upper jaw.
¨ The Galvayne’s Grove:
Although some people like to use the Galvayne’s Grove to age horses, I personally do not believe it is very accurate. The groove is a vertical, stained indent running from top to bottom on the upper corner incisor teeth. If present, it should start to show at 10 years old, reach the bottom of the tooth by 20, and disappear altogether at about 30 years old.
¨ The incisor’s shape and angle:
As the teeth wear nearer to the root, they change in their shape and angle. A younger horse will have more oval shaped teeth that appear upright when viewed from the side. An older horse, on the other hand, will have smaller, more triangular shaped teeth that may have gaps running between them. Viewed from the side, they will appear much steeper in angle and longer in length.
To help you get a feel for ageing horses, it would be a good idea to look in as many mouths as possible of horses whose age you know to see how they compare, and then have a thorough look at your own horse’s teeth.