AGING A HORSE BY ITS TEETH Kentucky Equine

AGING A HORSE BY ITS TEETH Kentucky Equine Education Project

Terms • Deciduous teeth: temporary, milk, or baby teeth • Permanent teeth: second set of teeth, or adult teeth • Cup: dark-brown to black cavity in tooth • Dental star: dark yellow to yellowish-brown dentin that fills the cavity as the tooth wears • Eruption: when a tooth breaks through the gum

Terms (cont. ) • Incisor teeth: centrals, intermediates, & corners • Dental table: occlusal or biting surface • Galvayne’s Groove: vertical depression on the upper corner incisors, which gets longer with age • Angle of incidence: angle formed by meeting of upper and lower incisors • Molars: cheek teeth • Bishoping: Dishonest way of restoring cups

Terms (cont. )

History • Chinese drawings of men looking in horse’s mouth to age, as early as 700 B. C. • Sidney Galvayne, 1800 s – Traveled Europe aging horses – Brought popularity to method – Wrote Horse Dentition: Showing How to Tell Exactly the Age of a Horse, Up to Thirty Years – Galvayne’s Groove

Equine Teeth Diagram

Horse Cuts Baby Teeth • 8 days- center incisors • 8 weeksintermediates • 8 months- corners

Cups Go Out of Baby Teeth • 1 year- centers • 1 ½ yearsintermediates • 2 years- corners

Horse Cuts Permanent Teeth • • 2 ½ years- centers 3 ½ years- intermediates 4 ½ years- corners 5 years- horse is said to have a “full mouth” because all permanent teeth are in place

Cups Go Out of Permanent Teeth • • • 6 years- lower centers 7 years- lower intermediates 8 years- lower corners 9 years- upper centers 10 years- upper intermediates 11 years- upper corners – Horse has “smooth mouth” because all cups are now gone

Hooks • 7 years- hooks, or dovetails, form on upper corners

Galvayne’s Groove • • 11 years- groove appears on upper corners Gets longer with age 15 years- about halfway down tooth 20 years- groove reaches end of tooth, then begins to disappear from top down

Angle of Incidence • Angle formed by the meeting of the upper and lower incisor teeth • 160 -180 degrees in young horses • Less than 90 degrees in older horses, as teeth become longer and slant outward • Responsible for the hook, or dovetail, that forms on a 7 year-old horse

Shape of the Dental Table • Wider than they are deep in young horses • Width decreases and thickness increases around 6 years • Round surface between 9 and 12 years • Triangular surface between 14 and 17 years • Thicker than they are wide 20 and over

Does This Method Always Work? • There are certain situations that cause the method to not be reliable – Chances of error increase with age – Diet: • Stabled horses may appear to be younger than they are • Range horses, etc. that graze on rough, sandy areas appear older because of the wear on their teeth

Why Might You Need to Know This? • To make sure the horse you are buying matches the registration papers • To make sure the horse you are buying is the age that the seller claims he is, if there are no registration papers • You bought or received a horse and the previous owner didn’t know how old he is

Questions?