“He who wishes to have such studs of stallions and mares as may be seen in Peloponnesus and in Apulia should first consider age and see that he obtains them not less than three nor more than ten years old.  The age of a horse, as also of nearly all animals whose hoofs are not cloven, even horned animals, may be known from the condition of the teeth:  thus at thirty months of age a colt is said to lose the milk incisors from the middle of his mouth, two above and two below.  At the beginning of the fourth year, in like manner he sheds the same number, being the incisors adjoining those previously lost, and at that age also the teeth called canine begin to appear.  At the beginning of the fifth year he loses two more incisors, and at that time the new teeth show hollow.  In the sixth year the new teeth begin to fill out their cavities, and by the seventh usually all have been renewed and the permanent mouth is made.  What is the age of a horse beyond this point it is not possible to determine accurately, except that when the teeth project and the eye brows are white and have hollows under them, it is considered that a horse is sixteen years old.

“A breeding mare should be of medium size, for it is not fitting that they should be either very large or very small, but the quarters and belly should be broad.

“A breeding stallion on the other hand should be chosen with a large body, well made and all his parts in harmony.  What sort of horse it will turn out to be can be determined from the points of the foal, for it should exhibit a small head:  limbs well knit together:  a black eye, wide nostrils:  ears well pricked:  a mane which is thick, dark and curly, of fine hairs and falling on the right side of the neck:  a breast broad and well developed:  strong shoulders:  a moderate belly:  the loins flat and rising to the quarters:  long shoulder blades:  a back bone well doubled [with ridges of meat] but if these are not prominent in no event should the bone itself stand out:  a tail large and curly:  legs straight and even and rather long:  knees round and small and not turned in as you look at them:  hard hoofs:  veins visible all over the body (for a horse of this kind is fit for treatment when he is sick).

“The breed is of the greatest importance, for there are many.  In this respect the celebrated breeds take the names of the countries from which they come:  thus in Greece we have the Thessalian breed:  in Italy the Apulian from Apulia, and the Rosean from Rosea.[140]

“It is a sign that they will make good horses if, when at pasture with the herd, the colts contend with one another for superiority in running or in any thing else, or if when a stream is to be crossed they leap it at the head of the herd and do not look back for the others.

“Horses are bought in almost the same manner as cattle or asses, because they change ownership by similar formalities, all of which are set forth in the book of Manilius.