There is the old adage, "don't look a gift horse in the mouth". Why would you look in a horse's mouth?

Answer 1

Good question! This comes from the practice of examining a horse's teeth to determine the overall general health of the animal.

The point is, if it was given to you as a gift, accept it graciously, without analyzing it.

Thanks for asking!

Answer 2

Well, here's my thoughts...don't know how accurate, but it's something to think about:

If someone gives you something, you shouldn't immediately look and see if there any flaws. For a horse, I think the easiest way to see if it is sick is by its teeth. If it has healthy teeth, then it's a good horse (generally, but there are always possibilities of contradictions, like hoof problems and whatnot...) Anyways, when someone gives you a horse, and you right away look at its teeth to see how good the gift horse is, that's rather rude, because you're implying that the horse may not have been cared for! The same goes for other gifts.

So it's just saying that if someone gives you something, you shouldn't search it over for flaws in front of the person. Be grateful, and later look it over. You can always get rid of it, or give it to someone else if it's not what you want, but be grateful that someone actually gave you something.

And like I said earlier, you'd look in a horse's mouth to see how healthy it is via its teeth.

Answer 3

Looking at a horse's teeth is how you tell the age of the horse. So, if someone GIVES you a horse, it would be considered rude to look in it's mouth to see how old he was, since it was a gift.

Answer 4

When buying a horse people will look at the teeth to see the health and age of the animal. But to look a gift horse in the mouth would be insulting to the gift giver and would make the receiver look unappreciative

Answer 5

That was an old saying because you can tell the age of a horse by looking at its teeth. They are saying do not scrutinize a gift because a gift is a nice thing.

Answer 6

It must go back to the time when we used horses for transport. When you bought a horse, you would look at it's teeth to see if the horse was in good health. So if someone gave you a horse, then it would be an insult if you checked it's teeth. I presume.

Answer 7

The length of a horse's teeth tells you how old a horse is. Its rude to worry about a horse's age if its a gift.

Answer 8

Horse's ages are determined by their teeth. Back in the old days, when horses were THE mode of transportation, if someone were to give you a horse for free, it would be rude to check its teeth to see if it was up to your standards.

Answer 9

This is a reference to the Trojan War in the Illiad. The Greeks couldn't break into Troy so they presented the Trojans with a big statue of a horse. The statue was hollow and when the Trojans brought it inside the walls of Troy Greek soldiers poured out the mouth and slaughtered the citizens of Troy.

Answer 10

Actually this is how you age a horse by looking inside his mouth at his teeth for wear.