Horse teeth refers to the dentition of equine species, including horses and donkeys. Equines are both heterodontous and diphyodontous, which means that they have teeth in more than one shape (there are up to five shapes of tooth in a horse's mouth), and have two successive sets of teeth, the deciduous ("baby teeth") and permanent sets.
As grazing animals, good dentition is essential to survival, and continued grazing creates specific patterns of wear, which can be used along with patterns of eruption to estimate the age of the horse.
Read more about Horse Teeth: Types of Teeth, Tooth Growth, Tooth Wear, Continuous Eruption and Loss, The Teeth and The Bit, Dental Problems, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words horse and/or teeth:
“The horse is taught his manage, and no star
Of wildest course but treads back his own steps;”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“No spoon has yet destroyed a mouth, but the knife of war cuts portions that are hard to swallow. Perhaps the big mouths of the privileged are able to cope with them, but they dull the teeth of the little people and ruin their stomachs.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)