Amy

Learning about horses
horses are my favorite animal is a horse i think horses are really fun to ride and there beautiful now I'll tell you what i've learned. depending on breed,management and environment the domestic horse today has a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years it is uncommon but a few animals live into their 40s and occasionally beyond the oldest veriflable record was old billy'' a19th century horse that to the age of 62 in the modern times sugar puff who had been listed in the guinness book of world records as the worlds oldest living pony died in 2007 aged 56.

regardless of a horses actual birth date for most competition purposes an animal i s considered a year older on january 1 of each year in the northern hemisphere and august 1 in the southern hemisphere the exception is in endurance riding where the minimum age two compete is based on the animal's calender age a very rough estimate of a horses age can be made from looking at its teeth

the following terminology is used to describe horses of various ages

a horse of either sex less then one year old a nursing foal is sometimes called a suckling and a foal that has been weaned is called a weanling most domesticated foals are weaned at 5 to 7 months of age although foals can be weaned at 4 months with no adverse effects. colt a male horse under the age of 4 a common ter minology error is to call any young horse a colt when the term actually oniy refers to young male horses