How can a horse's age be determined and what affects its lifespan?
Modern horse farm owners and equestrian sports enthusiasts often seriously think about purchasing animals. They are always faced with the question of how to correctly determine the age of the horse so that the purchase does not disappoint and justify itself. The age of the horse is important for calculating the workload, when used in breeding, and in some cases for determining the dosage of drugs.
How long does a horse live?
On average, a domestic horse lives for 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 the young animals are ready for the first workloads by the age of five, the first 6 years are the physical growth of the animal. So, the first cervical vertebra is formed only by the end of the sixth year of life. The active period lasts up to 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 that do not reach 10 years.
How to determine the age of a horse
Even if the animal has documents of origin, it is imperative to examine it 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 movement of the animal. Young stallions and mares move easily, springy, energetically. The neck is held high when moving, higher than the level of the withers.
It is imperative to examine the face, touch the skin on it with your bare hands. The skin of young animals is thin and soft. This also applies to the lips of the animal. The eyes are bulging, shiny, mobile. The skin pulls back easily, quickly returns to its place. Young filly who do not have offspring have a taut belly. Their backs, like those of young stallions, are more straight.
Elderly mares foaled many times and older 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 hangs down due to the weakening of the facial muscles. By this age, graying may appear on the muzzle, and the hooves become rough and wider and lower. It is worth taking a closer look at how horses eat. Older 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 age, you can examine the teeth of the animal.
According to the dentition
The biological age of an animal can be determined by its teeth. Surprisingly, foals can normally be born with or without teeth.There are usually four first teeth - two incisors, they are also hooks, on the upper and two on the lower jaw.
If the foal was born completely without teeth, then they appear on 3-4 days 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, a full set of them grows, equal to 24 milk teeth. At about this age or a little earlier, the baby can be taken away from the mother and transferred to the hands of another owner.
You may notice that:
- By the 12th month, the youngsters wear out depressions or cups on the front incisors.
- By the 24th month, the cups are absent on all milk teeth.
- In the third year, the milk incisors change to 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, the cups begin to grind on the lower teeth, and the animal is considered an adult.
- By the end of 8 years of life, there are no cups on all lower teeth.
- From 9 to 11 years of age, the indentations disappear on the teeth of the upper jaw.
At the age of 12, all teeth are grinded, and age can be determined by continuing changes. In the period from 12 to 20 years, the teeth are still growing, but their shape changes from rounded to triangular, the bite is quite strongly extended forward.
Growth stops after 20-24 years. At this age, teeth are only grinded. Their shape is determined by the shape of the dental base. In animals of this and older age, teeth can be worn down to the very gums.
Factors affecting life expectancy
The lifespan is determined by several factors:
- genetics and breed;
- care and conditions of detention;
- workloads;
- feeding and grazing;
- veterinary services.
It is believed that representatives of draft breeds live 30-35 years, and racehorses - from 25 to 30 years. One of the factors affecting life expectancy is nutrition. With age, the horse's body loses its ability to digest roughage. If this problem is not noticed in time and the diet is not corrected, the animal will begin to suffer from intestinal colic and malnutrition. All this can lead to a relatively early death.
Thus, in addition to the origin, the pet's lifespan is influenced by the efforts of its owner aimed at competent maintenance.
Record-breaking horses
The existence of horses, whose age significantly exceeded average life expectancy, has been documented:
- Thoroughbred riding horse Prospect Point 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 a limp, he walked under the saddle. He was put to sleep 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 she is 46 years old. Once she regularly transported cargo for the local military trade. She was rescued from slaughter and has been living in the last years in warmth and care in the club stable.
- Magic, a 46-year-old mare, currently lives in California, where she helps train beginners to ride.
- Old Billy is considered the absolute record holder among long-lived horses. He died at the age of 62.
In the Guinness Book of Records, there is a record of two elderly short horses - twins Taffy and Griffy. They were born in 1982 and the couple are believed to be alive to this day.
