An instance has occurred where a horse shed all his teeth at
once, and another instance of a horse shedding all his teeth with
his last set of four; but such instances are very rare. It
consequently happens that a horse when four and a half years old is in
excellent condition for breeding purposes.
The older horses, whether of the male or female, are the more
generatively productive. Horses will cover mares from which they
have been foaled and mares which they have begotten; and, indeed, a
troop of horses is only considered perfect when such promiscuity of
intercourse occurs. Scythians use pregnant mares for riding when the
embryo has turned rather soon in the womb, and they assert that
thereby the mothers have all the easier delivery. Quadrupeds as a rule
lie down for parturition, and in consequence the young of them all
come out of the womb sideways. The mare, however, when the time for
parturition arrives, stands erect and in that posture casts its foal.
The horse in general lives for eighteen or twenty years; some
horses live for twenty-five or even thirty, and if a horse be
treated with extreme care, it may last on to the age of fifty years; a
horse, however, when it reaches thirty years is regarded as
exceptionally old.
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