Depressions above horses eyes.

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poodle20

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Hi, I am new to this forum , so Hello to everyone.
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I am asking on behalf of a friend. She is hoping to take on a gelding whose present owners seems to know very little about as he was bought from a sale. They seem to think he is about 15, but I have noticed that he has deep depressions above his eyes, I thought that this was a sign of old age or is that just an old wives tale.
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anyone any ideas please.
Thanks in advance.
 
Hello and welcome to HHO
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I'd be interested to hear the answer to your question as I've always wondered about the hollows too
 
you need to look at teeth for ageing a horse,it`s a bit hit&miss the older the horse is though.
yes,they do get a bit sunken above the eye with age.
 
What type of horse is he? My TB has always had quite large depressions above her eyes (not massive, but fairly big). She's just turned 12 and I've had her since she was 10 (I know her age for definite from speaking to her old owner.)

They aren't a reliable way of deciding age and if you're talking about a horse who's past you don't know, big depressions above the eyes aren't really anything to go by.
 
Thanks everyone. Think she had a look at his teeth and they did seem fairly straight, hope that makes sense. Think he is a Cleveland Bay X, not sure what with. He is a lovely boy, very friendly and desperately in need of some TLC. The only thing is, my friend lost her beloved mare 2 weeks ago at the age of 22, and she had bred her, so she really doesn't want to take on an aged horse, think she has fallen in love with him already tho
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Think she had a look at his teeth and they did seem fairly straight

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????????

you need to look for angles,wear and tear,grooves etc it is quite a skill and 2 horses the same age can appear to be different.you need to look at the middle of the teeth too.
 
It is a sign of old age but a deep depression above the eyes (sub orbital depression) can be a sign of a horse that has seen hard times previously, i.e has been emaciated to some degree. An of course like humans, some horses have deeper depressions that others.

Get your friend to ask a dentist to age the horse and then you will have more of an idea of its age. x
 
I agree with both Cahill and Applecart. The depression can be a sign of old age, but there may be other factors involved also, so it is not a reliable guide.

If your friend decides to get the horse vetted, the vet should be able to give a fair assessment of the horse's age by looking at the teeth. The teeth are a far more reliable indicator of age than eye depressions, but even so, the older a horse becomes, the harder it can be to establish the correct age simply by looking at the teeth.

So, the teeth are the best guide you have - but you will need to accept that ageing a mature horse by the teeth alone is not 100% reliable either.
 
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Depression above the eyes can indicate the onset of 'Cushings Disease' which can trigger off Laminitis.

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When my old horse got cushings her depressions above the eyes puffed out not further in.
 
My 22 yo mare and 13 yo gelding have very similar depressions over their eyes. Hers are slightly more obvious because she is just bonier of face than he is. He has hardly had a hard life as I know where he has been since he was three years old. She, on the other hand, has had a tough time and a few foals.
 
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Depression above the eyes can indicate the onset of 'Cushings Disease' which can trigger off Laminitis.

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Sorry you are wrong there, it is not depressions but 'puffiness' above the eye which can indicate the onset of Cushings.
 
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