Upon purchase of a horse it is very important to determine correctly her age as in many respects her working capacity depends on it. Too old or too young animal will not be able effectively to work, and it is necessary to feed and look after it all the same. An optimal variant – existence of the passport, but how to determine the age of a horse if there are no documents on her?
Instruction
1. At first attentively examine skin of an animal, over the years it becomes rigid and less elastic, on superciliary arches and a chin gray-haired hairs appear; besides, at horses of dark color the gray hair can look through in a mane or a tail.
2. Ask the owner to walk with a horse and estimate an animal silhouette: at elderly horses the back and a belly sag, over the years corners of joints of bones are pointed, muscles become more flabby. Attentively examine a muzzle: young horses have more convex forehead and the head is outlined by soft lines, the bottom edge of a jaw is rounded; at elderly the throat and eye hollows go deep, the bottom edge of a jaw becomes sharper, the lower lip droops.
3. To determine the age more precisely, examine teeth of a horse. For this purpose get up on the right side and enter the right hand through toothless edge into a mouth. Take language aside average and index fingers of the right hand, and left record the head in the raised situation. For this purpose hold the head for an upper lip and a back of a nose.
4. If you need to determine the age of a foal, consider that dairy hooks are cut through at the age of 1-2 weeks, average cutters – for 30-45 day, and dairy okrayka - at the age of 6-7 months.
5. Look whether cups on dairy cutters if they were erased only on hooks were erased – horses are not less than 10-12 months; if there are no cups on average cutters any more – means, the animal has more than a year; after all cups are erased on okrayka – in 15-24 months.
6. To determine the age of an adult horse, estimate a condition of constant cutters. Consider that hooks are cut through in 2.5 years and in half a year are leveled, average cutters appear in 3.5 years; then, in 4.5 years, okrayka appear and by 5 years they are also leveled.
7. For determination of age of a horse of 6-11 years examine her lower cutters. Remember the following sequence of deletings of cups: hooks – 6 years, average cutters – 7 years, okrayka – 8 years. If on all cups are erased, pass to survey of the top cutters. Here sequence, respectively, 9, 10 and 11 years.