Ageing & teeth - help please!

only_me

only_me

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 June 2007
Messages
14,056
Location
Ireland
Visit site
was wondering if you guys could help me!

Billy is a 5 year old rising 6 gelding - so as part of work I was looking at teeth and trying to "age" horses.
Looking at Billy, he has 1 full tush on his lower offside jaw, about 2/3 of the upper tush through and looks as though has only come down recently (as in the past 1 or 2 months)
The near side he has one full tush in his lower jaw and he hasn't got his upper tush through yet!!
I can feel the upper tush but it hasn't broken through yet.

Could this mean he is a year younger? or, considering horses don't read text books that he is just slow in them showing?

His passport is 2006 and I bought him from the breeders so should be 100%, but the fact that he only has 3 out of 4 tushes is worrying me!
 
Sounds fine to me! You can reasonably accurately age a horse of that age by looking at the corner teeth. If he was 4 rising 5, they probably wouldn't all be though yet, and if they were, they would be unlikely to be in wear.
A 5 rising 6 year old should have his corner teeth in wear at the front at least and by the time he is 6, then the teeth should be in full wear.

Hope that helps!
 
Ageing by the teeth is a pretty inexact science, and it is best to look at the inscisors as well as tushes before you age the horse. Lots of horses are late with various stages. I find the milk teeth often don't drop out until the permenant teeth are virtually established, yet most books say there is 6 months between this happening.

Not all geldings will get all their tushes. Some tushes do stay under the gums forever. They can be a pain if they do though and may need a vets attention.
Some mares get tushes too.

I wouldn't worry too much, he's probably the right age for his passport, but have a look at his corner teeth as they will be more telling.
 
I wouldn't use the tushes to age by. Not all horses will get all 4, some may always sit below the gum...they can come through at different ages and some mares will even get them. At his age you should be able to roughly guess through the pattern of wear on the table of the incisors, the shape and angle of the incisors and how the cheek teeth are coming through (obviously can also depend on factors such as diet, sandy soil, breed, abnormalities etc).
 
As previous posters have said ageing by dentition is notoriously inaccurate. If it's any consolation our 5 yo has 3 tushes through, the first upper one is only just through and the other upper one has not broken the gum yet though you can see it's on it's way. He is definitely tender on the gum and not as settled in the contact as he was so he's having a quiet time just now. I have questioned his age too as, unlike your boy, he is still pretty weak and immature but as I don't have much information on his past (he came through Cavan sales as a 4 yo) I've accepted we just have to take things at his pace and wait for him to mature in his own time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top