How Long does a Horse Live?
Written by Hiddenhorse on 02/10/2009 – 6:16 pm -Simple enough question I suppose but finding the answer is not at all easy. We could more properly ask what is the average longevity of the horse or what is the lifespan of the horse? Or we could be really brave and ask what is the potential lifespan of a horse? The short answer to that one, I’ve found out, after researching over several years, is basically a lot longer than we think.
If you ask most people they would say a horse of around 20 years of age would be an old horse a horse of 30 years of age would be a very old horse. But I’ve worked with horses in their 40s that were still quite sprightly and had an excellent quality of life. Equally I’ve met people who would say that ten years of age would be a good age, so the answer to a lot of these questions is – it all depends who you ask.
What can science tell us? The best I’ve been able to come up with is a scientific site that comes up with a researched and verified figure for the longevity of the horse, of fifty years for a domestic horse and a potential 62 years for a wild horse. Here is a link to the page:
http://www.demogr.mpg.de/cgi-bin/longevityrecords/indexsearch.plx?category=1&data=777
Whoa there! What’s this a wild horse lives almost a decade longer than a pampered domestic animal? But don’t wild horses live nasty brutish lives where they are riddled with parasites and disease, have no vets, farriers, equine dentists, medicines, antibiotics, rugs, nutritionists and not even a personal trainer!?? Aren’t wild horses under constant threat of death from predators? Apparently not.
Other sites will tell you the average lifespan of a horse is 18 years; this is from the Columbia Encyclopaedia
“Horses reach sexual maturity in about two years, but are not fully grown for about five years. The average life span is 18 years, but 30-year-old horses are common”.
Hang on the average life span is 18 years but horses of nearly twice that age are common that’s quite a big margin of variability.
I know, what about the Guinness Book of Records?
The expected life span of a horse or pony is approximately twenty to thirty years. Although according to the Guinness Book of Records Old Billy believed to a Cleveland Bay cross eastern horse foaled in 1760 and lived to the incredible age of 62.
This was from a site that answered ‘frequently asked questions’, what about this one:
“If they were living in the wild, poor dentition alone would probably lead to a natural lifespan of 12 to 18 years – not withstanding predators and other mishaps. What can you expect for your horse? If we assume that your horse does not suffer a catastrophic event, such as colic or fractured bones, it is reasonable to expect that your horse will live into his twenties, and many will reach their thirties”.
What’s that about wild horses? Are we back down to 12 to 18 years, – not 60 years then? One of the most honest answers came from a site called www.petplace.com
http://www.petplace.com/horses/the-horse-s-life-span/page1.aspx
They said:
“Our definition of a horse’s life span has changed dramatically over the past few decades. Not long ago a 9 year old was considered aged, and a 13 year old was considered ready for retirement”.
This was taken from an article about preventative medicine.
Finally I present this, taken from a French magazine ‘Natural Horse Planet’, find them at http://www.naturalhorseplanet.com/.
The average age for a recreational horse in France is 8.7 years.
So why all the differences? We have gone from 8.7 years to a possible 62 years, that is a huge range. Why should this be?
I think the answer lies in our idea of a utility model. In the utility model we humans define our horse by just one thing it’s purpose. When we make a statement that defines our beliefs about the ‘life-span’ of a horse we are really saying, “this is how long a horse lives because this is how long a horse is of use to us”.
When I said we define everything about our horse by it’s purpose, I do mean everything. I have two horses that formerly were only defined by their purpose, one within the dressage world and one within the army eventing world, both were condemned to be shot, one was and insurance ‘write-off’ and both were under ten years old. Both were considered ‘use-less’ and no longer fit for purpose, – both were given to me free to a good home. Both were also previously defined as being worth a lot of money (in one case nearly £10K!)
So there we have it the life span of the the horse is officially – er… unknown.
But we can say horses live longer without human interference,… funny that.
