How to determine the age of a horse: methods and what affects life expectancy

Modern owners of horse farms, equestrian sports enthusiasts very often seriously think about purchasing animals. They always face the question of how to correctly determine the age of the horse so that the purchase does not disappoint and justifies itself. The age of the horse is important in calculating workload, when used in breeding work, and in some cases also in determining drug doses.

How long does a horse live?

On average, a domestic horse lives 25-30 years. However, there is always an exception to this rule. Among animals, there are both centenarians and those who die much earlier than expected.

Despite the fact that young animals are ready for the first workload by the age of five, the first 6 years the physical growth of the animal takes place. So, the first cervical vertebra is formed only by the end of the sixth year of life. The active period lasts until 18-20 years. A horse can be safely considered a long-liver if its age has reached 35-40 years. At the same time, there are often individuals who do not live up to 10 years.

How to determine the age of a horse

Even if the animal has documents of origin, it must be examined for compliance with the specified age.

Visual inspection

Determination of age begins with an external examination. First of all, you should pay attention to the movements of the animal. Young stallions and mares move easily, springy, energetically. The neck is held high during movement, higher than the level of the withers.

Be sure to examine the muzzle, touch the skin on it with your bare hands.The skin of young animals is thin, soft. This also applies to the lips of the animal. The eyes are bulging, shiny, mobile. The skin is pulled back easily, it quickly returns to its place. Young fillies that do not have offspring have a taut belly. Their backs, like those of young stallions, are more straight.

Older, many times foaled mares and age horses, especially hard and hard work, have a strongly arched back. In a calm state, in old animals, whose age is approaching 15-20 years, the lower lip sags due to the weakening of the facial muscles. By the same age, graying on the muzzle may appear, and the hooves become rough and wider and lower. It is worth taking a closer look at how horses eat. Adults and older animals eat more slowly.

Attention! Very often, the appearance depends on the care, conditions of detention, visually it is not always possible to determine the age from it with an error of up to 1-3 years. To confirm the age, you can examine the teeth of the animal.

According to the dentition

The biological age of an animal can be determined by the teeth. Surprisingly, normal foals can be born with or without teeth. The first teeth are usually four - two incisors, they are also hooks, on the upper and two on the lower jaw.

If a foal was born completely without teeth, then they appear on the 3rd-4th day of life. You can find out about the age of a young animal of this period by the number of milk teeth. By 9-10 months, their full set, equal to 24 milk teeth, grows. Around this age or a little earlier, the baby can be taken away from the mother and transferred to another owner.

You may notice that:

By 12 months, the indentations or cups on the front incisors are erased in young animals.
By 24 months, cups are missing on all milk teeth.
In the third year, the milk incisors change into permanent teeth, the bite changes, the teeth move forward.
By the age of 5-6, the change of teeth ends, and all permanent teeth have clearly visible cups.
At about 7 years old, cups begin to grind down on the lower teeth, and the animal is considered an adult.
By the end of the 8th year of life there are no cups on all lower teeth.
From 9 to 11 years, the depressions disappear on the teeth of the upper jaw.

At 12, all teeth are ground off, and age can be determined by ongoing changes. Between the ages of 12 and 20, the teeth are still growing, but their shape changes from rounded to triangular, the bite is rather extended forward.

After 20-24 years, growth stops. At this age, the teeth are only worn down. Their shape is determined by the shape of the dental base. In animals of this age and older, teeth can be worn down to the gums.

Factors affecting life expectancy

Life span is determined by several factors:

genetics and breed;
care and conditions of detention;
workloads;
feeding and grazing;
veterinary service.

It is believed that representatives of draft breeds live 30-35 years, and race breeds - from 25 to 30 years. One of the factors affecting life expectancy is nutrition. With age, the horse's body loses the ability to digest roughage. If this problem is not noticed in time and adjustments are not made to the diet, then the animal will begin to suffer from intestinal colic and malnutrition. All this can cause a relatively early death.

Thus, in addition to the origin, the life expectancy of a pet is influenced by the efforts of its owner aimed at competent maintenance.

Horses-record holders

Documentation of the existence of horses, whose age has significantly exceeded the average life expectancy:

The Prospect Point Thoroughbred was born in 1978 in Kentucky, America. Took part in 72 competitions. In seven of them he came first, in eight - second, and in ten - third. In 1985, his racing career ended. Since 1993 it has been used by the new owner in show jumping. Until 2010, despite the lameness, he walked under the saddle. Euthanized due to a serious illness in 2016 at the age of 38.
In the equestrian club on about. Sakhalin lives a horse named Seagull. Today her age is 46 years. Once she regularly carried cargo for the local military department. She was saved from slaughter and lives in the last years in warmth and care in the club stable.
Magic is a mare who has reached the age of 46 and currently lives in the state of California, where she helps to teach beginners how to ride.
Old Billy is considered the absolute champion among long-lived horses. He died at the age of 62.

In the Guinness Book of Records there is an entry about two elderly undersized horses - twins Tuffy and Griffy. They were born in 1982 and it is believed that the couple is still alive today.