Teeth Are the Reason To 'Never Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth'

What exactly is meant by the phrase, "Never look a gift horse in the mouth?"

For horsemen, it means "beware, because really, you do not want to know the whole story." If you had bothered to take the time and looked into the horse's mouth, you would probably not be too happy with the results. The reason lies in the teeth. The older the horse, the longer and more prominent the teeth. In fact, if you look in the mouth of that horse and see teeth that resemble those of a beaver, you know you have just become the proud owner of a really old nag.

There was a very ambitious 19th century horse tamer who called himself Professor Sydney Galvayne. He claimed to have been born in Australia in 1846. His great-great-grandson, Jonathan Jones, says his ancestor was actually named Frederick Henry Attride, and he was an Englishman of lowly birth. Mr. Attride traveled in carnivals through Europe, living with the "travelers," or Gypsies, of the time. The professor had an unusual act. He stated that he could tell the age of any horse by looking in its mouth. By the 1880s, this "scientific horse breaker and tamer" was claiming the method uniquely his own, but naturally he offered to sell this secret to others. The secret was one that he had learned from mystical association and kinship with the Gypsies.

It was in 1884 that Mr. Attride re-invented himself as Professor Sydney Frederick Galvayne. He was quite the self-promoter. In 1885, he published his first book, "Horse Dentition; Showing How to Tell Exactly the Age of a Horse up to Thirty Years." He published another book on training in 1888. The professor was prolific, and he wrote another book on war horses and stories of remounts in South Africa in 1902. The widest published was "The 20th Century Book of the Horse in 1905," of which I have a copy in our cottage library.

The first book on teeth was actually quite a good seller, and the term that Professor Galvayne coined is still known today in the horse world as "Galvayne's Groove." The groove is a darkened, longitudinal indentation in a horse's teeth. It begins to appear at the gum lines of the horse's upper corner incisors at nine to 10 years of age. As the teeth erupt, the groove becomes exposed at a measured and precisely appreciable rate. This extends the full length of the tooth by the age of 20, and then by the age of 30, it disappears entirely in the horse. If one adds this information with tooth wear, a reliable determination of equine age can be surmised.

A horse is born with small teeth, like buds, and some erupt eight to 10 days later. Horse teeth continue to grow, much like in humans, and they shed the baby teeth at around 2.5 years. The temporary molars are replaced up to the age of six. Grain will cause the molars to be more advanced, compared to teeth in grass-fed horses. The teeth of horses have indentations, called cups, that deepen and then are worn away. A calcium deposit resembling a star often appears on the lower incisors toward the outer edges, until the horse is about 12 years old. Mature horses tend to have between 36 and 40 teeth.

Some horses are also born with a few teeth that erupt occasionally in the jaw. These then grow alongside or behind the incisors. They're called "wolf teeth." Generally, they should be extracted, as they serve no useful purpose, and often cause irritation. Most horses who do not have wolf teeth removed end up losing the other, more important, teeth and are bothered by the wolf teeth their whole lives.

As the horse advances in age, there is a tendency for the upper and lower incisors in the jaws to protrude outward toward the lips. The gums both sink, and recede. This is where the phrase "long in the tooth," comes from. These teeth are really long.

Horse's teeth are cared for by dental work known as "floating." The teeth are filed down on their sharp points, so the animal can better consume and grind his grain, as well as chew grass and hay.

Professor Galvayne's dental charts graced many a stable and tack room in the Victorian era. Michigan State University library has several copies of the professor's book in its rare veterinary book library. Beyond his repute of determining a horse's age, Professor Galvayne's other claim to fame was in breaking young horses. The 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica has a detailed entry on a breaking method for young colts called "Galvayning." The professor found that tying a horse's head to his tail would cause him to spin around. Professor Galvayne would implement this method until the horse would quiet down. It was quite a spin. Many horse folk of the day, however, used methods that were a lot rougher, and they thought his technique was a gentler, kinder approach.

Best wishes to all.

Candice Dunnigan is an active member of the American Equestrian Association, the Waterloo Hunt, and the Mackinac Horsemen's Association. Seasonally she resides at Easterly Cottage.