Methodology to calculate the age of a horse
Practically, we can almost do a simple multiplication of the horse's age by 3 to get its equivalent in human age.
Even its growth, from foal to adulthood is almost proportional to what we know with humans, unlike many animals where adulthood is reached early.
So it's from observations of the ages of horses that veterinarians have established a correlation table (age chart) to see an equivalence in human age:
| Horse real age | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human age | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 24 | 27 | 30 | 33 | 36 | 39 | 42 | 45 | 48 | 51 | 54 | 57 | 60 |
Life expectancy of the horse: a horse can live for about 40 years.
How do we call?
- a baby horse: a foal or a yearling
- a teenage horse (under the age of 4): a colt (for a male) or a filly (for a female)
- a female horse : a mare
- a male horse : a stallion or a gelding (when castrated)
Hybrid horses:
- hinny: jenny-ass (donkey) + stallion (horse)
- mule: jack + mare
- zorse: horse + zebra
And you, how old is your horse?
Longevity
Old Billy (AKA Billy Boy or Billy), was the world's oldest horse. Old Billy has indeed lived up to 62 years, an old man of nearly 186 years !!! Born in England in 1760, he lived his life as a horse pulling barges along the canals. It was black with a white mark. On 27 November 1822 the good old Billy died. A lithograph was published, showing Old Billy, Henry Harrison, who had known the animal for 59 years.
