How Old?? (Teeth)

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Siam Jack

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Hi All,
just wondering what everyone thinks about a horse being 'aged' by its teeth? is it really accurate?

I have a mare who came to me aged approx 15yrs (according to her previous owners)

When I got her passport DOB: unknown

previous vets report states her birthday is 25th Jan 1994 ?? so they say she is 17yrs 6mths!!

Had a visit yesterday by a Tooth/Back man who is really well respected on our yard and he checked her over and said she was only around 12yrs no more than 13yrs. (This man looked at my other boy last year and stated he was only 6-7yrs old and he was 6 1/2yrs previous owner had him from birth)

I have decided to go in the middle and say she is 14yrs as really not bothered about her age but interested to know what others would think?
 
Up to about 5 years old it is pretty accurate to within a year or so.
5-10 years you'd hope to be within a couple of years.
Above 10 is much less accurate, so a range of 3-4 years is usually given.
If you have a documented age of 17 years, with teeth that fit with a teenager then I would believe the reported birthday.
 
i have the same thing with my horse, i bought her as a 14 yr old but she was insured as 16 so i have always gone with her being 16, so would make her 26 now!

the passport was probably only done when the law came out, so if there was no papers to prove her dob then they wouldn't have been able to fill in a date!

my vet has my horse down as being 9 yrs old on their system, so i found out when i tried to make a claim, despite that fact that they've treated her for the 10 yrs I've had her and also when she was with her previous owner for 5 years, so you can never be 100% sure!
 
I bought mine as 14 but when I had Bob Luvock out to do his teeth he said he was more like 16 + so he is 32 now based on that
 
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