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The Galvayne's Groove

Last Modified: April 23th, 2004

There are many different things to look for when attempting to judge the age of a horse by it's teeth. By far, the most mysterious marker is that of Galvayne's Groove! Cliff Hanna, equine dentist, has kindly offered his article for this section of this site. Read the following article and send Cliff an e-mail to let him know how much you appreciate it :o)

Sydney Galvayne was an Australian born Irishman from the mid 1800's. He was a renowned student of the horse, and a horse trainer. When he came to England in 1884 he introduced a humane system of training unbroken or vicious horses using a method that utilized the horse's strength against itself.

Galvayne's Groove appears on the upper #3 adult incisors of a horse.

He held over 300 classes in Great Britain teaching these methods and in 1887 appeared before Queen Victoria.

Among his many feats as a horseman, Galvayne perfected a method of ageing horses by their teeth. He had great success in demonstrating this ability in his travels.

One of the clues to ageing a horse by his teeth that Sydney used now bears his name.
That is the Galvayne's Groove.

This groove appears on the upper #3 adult incisors of a horse. These are the two corner incisors on the top jaw. Either of these two teeth can be viewed from the side of the horse's mouth by lifting the upper lip a bit.

Now here's the interesting thing about this tooth.

At about 10 years of age a vertical groove appears on the tooth at the gum line and develops downward as the horse ages. It often is dark in color and readily visible. You will find some harder to see though. In these cases try to feel the groove with your fingernail.

At 15 years the groove is half way down and at 20 years it is all the way to the bottom or bite line of the tooth.

Galvayne's Groove as it appears in a younger horse (left) and an older horse (right).

But that is not the end of it. Now the groove begins to disappear. And again from the gum line down taking another ten years to disappear completely at the bottom of the tooth.

So this provides a handy little gauge to get an idea about a horse's age. To use it you estimate how much of the groove is showing - for example if it is half way down the tooth. In this case, because the groove appears at 10 years and is all the way down at 20 years, the groove indicates an age of 15 years.

If the groove's approximately 2/3 of the way down the tooth then you would have about 17 years.

In the case of the older horse you are looking at how much of the groove has disappeared. This starts to happen at 20 years and the groove is completely gone by the time the horse is 30 years old.

Again any fraction of this process will give you an age in between these two figures. A groove that has receded down half of the tooth would indicate a 25 year old horse, for example.

A horse younger than 10 years and older than 30 years will not show a groove. You will need to use other clues to age these two groups of horses.

Here are a couple of things to note about using this method.

First a word of caution. This little groove can help you get a good approximation of the horse's age. But it is an approximation because you are "eye balling" whether it is ½ way down or 2/3 of the way down, etc. And then you are dividing the 10 year window by that fraction.

Most of the time you will be very close to the horse's age using this technique. But I would suggest you don't bet big money on it!

Another thing you notice is that the length of the groove is sometimes different between the near side tooth and the off side tooth. If you run into this, average the two numbers. For example if the near incisor says 18 years and the off incisor says 16 years call him 17 years old.

The best way to practice this technique is to look at as many horses as you can that you, or someone, knows the age of. That way you can check yourself.

With some practice you will get quite good at this. You may not qualify to appear before the Queen of England but you will surprise your friends and fellow horse owners with your expertise

Learn to use the Galvayne's groove. You will find it often comes in handy.

Have fun!

Until we meet again - at your horse's mouth!

Cliff Hanna

Cliff Hanna is author of the soon to be released horse owner's dentistry handbook titled: "Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth" and maintains an equine dentistry practice out of Whitehorse in the Yukon, Canada. You can contact Cliff at channa@northwestel.net or phone (867) 633-4071 if you have a horse dentistry question.