What is a 'normal' age to lose a horse?

ycbm

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Aaaargh! After all that I forgot the unforgettable traumatic one!

6 dropped dead on a hack under me, ruptured aorta.
 

crazyandme

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12yo Highland - cancer in the digestive system somewhere
2 x yearling rescue ponies - encysted red worm damage before they were rescued
32yo Irish cob - old age/arthritis
24yo shirextb - kick in the field
33yo WelshxArab - old age
30yo Dales type - old age
 

Sky’s-Legacy

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1. 18yr old tumors on sheath/deciding health 15'2
2. 45yr old stroke 13'2
3. 8yr old hock issues 15'2
4. 8yr old grass sickness Falabella
5. 24yr old colic 10hh

Got a 34yr old still going strong currently.
 

eggs

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1. 3 year old freak field accident
2. 17 yr suspected stroke following surgery to remove a tumour
3. 21 yr traumatic kick to hock
4. 3 yr colic pts in recovery post surgery
5. 19 yr arthritis/ageing
6. 25 yr ageing
7. 3 yr tumour in abdomen
8. 13 yr bleed in spinal column caused ataxia
 

DirectorFury

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OK, figures are up to date as of eggs post #185.
Sorry if these come out huge for everyone!

Edit: please ignore the god awful colours, I forgot to change the colour scheme.

Histogram of age at death
ageatdeath.png
It looks like the most common age for a horse to pass away is 18, however there are definite peaks at 3, 6-8, 12/13, and then later in the 20s.

Histogram cause of death
cod.png
The most common COD is lameness -- this includes horses PTS due to arthritis, navicular, tendons, etc. When I have more time I'll go back through and break this down properly. 'Uk' means 'unknown'. I did try to group together similar reasons which is why these are so broad. So, for example, if someone said 'laminitis caused by cushings' I was putting that down as the COD is cushings, as without that health problem the horse wouldn't have had lami etc.

Relationship between age at death and cause of death
box.png

Horses that die of old age are likely to be older! Surprise ;). If anyone is unsure how to read this just google 'box plots'. We can see that grass sickness and worm damage are more likely to take younger horses, as are riding accidents. 'Sudden' deaths (i.e. horses that drop dead with no warning) happen across age groups, as do deaths due to neurological causes. Horses are more likely to be PTS for behavioural reasons around 7yo, and the median age for fatal colic to strike is ~18yo.

swarm.png
This is just a nicer way of reading the box plot above. We can see a definite pattern to deaths due to lameness (turn it sideways if that helps), with a gap at around 16/17yo. Distributions of colic deaths are roughly even over time.

I'm hoping I'll find time to do an interactive notebook of these results, plus some actual stats, and will maybe add a front end for wider data collection (so it can be posted to Facebook, for example) that is easier than doing it by hand.

Edit 2: a lot of these (n=506) are missing breed and height info so I’ve not included that yet.
 
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Jeni the dragon

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Mine
1, 7 Fell mare, grass sickness
2, 31 Riding Pony, lameness, struggling to get up. Still looked a million dollars, pts

Friends
1, 1 HiPo, tetnus, pts
2, 15 HiPo, mare, collapsed with abdominal problems, pts
3, 8 HiPo, field accident, broke leg, pts
4, 31 Conn mare, colic, had surgery and was looking ok, then went downhill, pts
5, 26 Conn Cross, tumour in throat, pts
6, 10 HiPo, tumour on/beside her heart, pts

Know quite a few more but can't be sure about ages.
 

Bonnie Allie

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OK, figures are up to date as of eggs post #185.
Sorry if these come out huge for everyone!

Edit: please ignore the god awful colours, I forgot to change the colour scheme.

Histogram of age at death
View attachment 65266
It looks like the most common age for a horse to pass away is 18, however there are definite peaks at 3, 6-8, 12/13, and then later in the 20s.

Histogram cause of death
View attachment 65267
The most common COD is lameness -- this includes horses PTS due to arthritis, navicular, tendons, etc. When I have more time I'll go back through and break this down properly. 'Uk' means 'unknown'. I did try to group together similar reasons which is why these are so broad. So, for example, if someone said 'laminitis caused by cushings' I was putting that down as the COD is cushings, as without that health problem the horse wouldn't have had lami etc.

Relationship between age at death and cause of death
View attachment 65268

Horses that die of old age are likely to be older! Surprise ;). If anyone is unsure how to read this just google 'box plots'. We can see that grass sickness and worm damage are more likely to take younger horses, as are riding accidents. 'Sudden' deaths (i.e. horses that drop dead with no warning) happen across age groups, as do deaths due to neurological causes. Horses are more likely to be PTS for behavioural reasons around 7yo, and the median age for fatal colic to strike is ~18yo.

View attachment 65269
This is just a nicer way of reading the box plot above. We can see a definite pattern to deaths due to lameness (turn it sideways if that helps), with a gap at around 16/17yo. Distributions of colic deaths are roughly even over time.

I'm hoping I'll find time to do an interactive notebook of these results, plus some actual stats, and will maybe add a front end for wider data collection (so it can be posted to Facebook, for example) that is easier than doing it by hand.

Edit 2: a lot of these (n=506) are missing breed and height info so I’ve not included that yet.


OMG - DirectorFury, I think I want to hug you. Love a box and whisker sensitivity graph.

Actually love all data visualisations. Thanks for this. Not a PowerBI freak by any chance as well are you?
 

JackFrost

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DirectorFury - amazeballs!!!!!!

:rolleyes: I am wondering whether the data we have are skewing the result a bit to show an earlier average age of death. As well as those deceased, we all know lots that are alive so they don't figure in the calculations. Some will be a good old age, and if we are basing this on those that have died within our experience, won't this slant it to include more young horses? Or am I just wrong??
 

ycbm

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OK, figures are up to date as of eggs post #185.
Sorry if these come out huge for everyone!

Edit: please ignore the god awful colours, I forgot to change the colour scheme.

Histogram of age at death
View attachment 65266
It looks like the most common age for a horse to pass away is 18, however there are definite peaks at 3, 6-8, 12/13, and then later in the 20s.

Histogram cause of death
View attachment 65267
The most common COD is lameness -- this includes horses PTS due to arthritis, navicular, tendons, etc. When I have more time I'll go back through and break this down properly. 'Uk' means 'unknown'. I did try to group together similar reasons which is why these are so broad. So, for example, if someone said 'laminitis caused by cushings' I was putting that down as the COD is cushings, as without that health problem the horse wouldn't have had lami etc.

Relationship between age at death and cause of death
View attachment 65268

Horses that die of old age are likely to be older! Surprise ;). If anyone is unsure how to read this just google 'box plots'. We can see that grass sickness and worm damage are more likely to take younger horses, as are riding accidents. 'Sudden' deaths (i.e. horses that drop dead with no warning) happen across age groups, as do deaths due to neurological causes. Horses are more likely to be PTS for behavioural reasons around 7yo, and the median age for fatal colic to strike is ~18yo.

View attachment 65269
This is just a nicer way of reading the box plot above. We can see a definite pattern to deaths due to lameness (turn it sideways if that helps), with a gap at around 16/17yo. Distributions of colic deaths are roughly even over time.

I'm hoping I'll find time to do an interactive notebook of these results, plus some actual stats, and will maybe add a front end for wider data collection (so it can be posted to Facebook, for example) that is easier than doing it by hand.

Edit 2: a lot of these (n=506) are missing breed and height info so I’ve not included that yet.


DF that's bloody fantastic! Thank you so much.
 

ycbm

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DirectorFury - amazeballs!!!!!!

:rolleyes: I am wondering whether the data we have are skewing the result a bit to show an earlier average age of death. As well as those deceased, we all know lots that are alive so they don't figure in the calculations. Some will be a good old age, and if we are basing this on those that have died within our experience, won't this slant it to include more young horses? Or am I just wrong??


It reflects what I've seen over 50 years of being around horses, that the vast majority never get anywhere near their mid twenties.

I started the thread because I thought social media was making a lot of people feel very guilty that their horses didn't make it to old age. I really hope this thread helps with that.

We humans bred horses up in size from what was natural to make them more useful to us, and in doing so we made them very fragile :(
 

MissTyc

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We've had the full range. This includes my horses and ones I have looked after in my field on behalf of their owners.

Mine:
27 ulcerated eye - pony
18 ringbone - shire X horse
16 kissing spine - KWPN
12 liver failure - ISH

But we've had some real oldies in the field!
42 died in field - Irish draft
40 losing condition/deteriorating/stiff - New Forest

Currently got a couple of very late 20/early 30s pottering about. These are the horses that make me feel cheated for losing mine earlier. I currently have a 16, an 11, and a 3yo, so I'd like them to live forever, please!
 

ycbm

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We've had the full range. This includes my horses and ones I have looked after in my field on behalf of their owners.

Mine:
27 ulcerated eye
18 ringbone
16 kissing spine
12 liver failure

But we've had some real oldies in the field!
42 died in field
40 losing condition/deteriorating/stiff

Currently got a couple of very late 20/early 30s pottering about. These are the horses that make me feel cheated for losing mine earlier. I currently have a 16, an 11, and a 3yo, so I'd like them to live forever, please!


What size were the 40 year olds?
 

blitznbobs

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32 heart attack (sec a)
21 Cushing/ lami Sec d
16 Cushing/ lami Sec d
10 malformation of internal structures of foot Sec d
4 acute cushings (rare malignant form) Sec d
28 hock arthritis kwpn
7 multiple problems resulting in permanent lameness - Holsteiner
44 arthritis and old age shetland

all pts except the first one who dropped dead in the field
 

HufflyPuffly

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27 Field accident resulting in none weight baring lameness, 14.3hh PBA.

I do feel her age + cushings resulted in some sort of deterioration of her joint capsules as it was an odd presentation of injury and similar to an episode she did recover from 5 years previously.
 

Brownmare

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This is very interesting and I wonder how much the results are skewed by owner circumstances. For example, I have one horse with a knackered hock at 14 who isn't rideable but is comfortable living out 24/7 in retirement however if I had to stable him overnight he wouldn't cope so would have been pts by now and also if I had him at livery I wouldn't be able to afford a second horse so again he would probably have been pts.
 

DirectorFury

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Maybe we should direct some of the "what do I write my dissertation about?" posts to this thread -- it would be ideal to get a larger number of observations and maybe extend it to collect information about horses that are still alive.

OMG - DirectorFury, I think I want to hug you. Love a box and whisker sensitivity graph.

Actually love all data visualisations. Thanks for this. Not a PowerBI freak by any chance as well are you?
I'm strictly Python and/or D3 I'm afraid! I normally design the visualisations that PowerBI/Tableau then include in their options so am one step removed from what most people use it for :p.

DirectorFury - amazeballs!!!!!!

:rolleyes: I am wondering whether the data we have are skewing the result a bit to show an earlier average age of death. As well as those deceased, we all know lots that are alive so they don't figure in the calculations. Some will be a good old age, and if we are basing this on those that have died within our experience, won't this slant it to include more young horses? Or am I just wrong??
Yep, if we'd recorded data on horses that were still alive I could've run a survival analysis which would have been interesting, though I think that's doable with the data we have anyway. You've also got the problem of self-selection -- people who reply to this thread might have known less horses that died (time it takes to type a long post), might be more willing to contribute, etc.

We also have to consider that horses, horse breeding, and diagnostic skills have changed quite a lot in the last 30 years. The flashy warmbloods that are popular now seem to be more prone to breaking, and in days gone by a lame horse might have been put out to grass for a year or so and then just been suitable as a light hack; whereas now we can throw all the diagnostics at something and treat it aggressively. The flip side is that when the treatment fails people might not be able to keep an unridden horse, or they know that the horse will be in pain, so they're PTS.

There's definitely a thesis in here, if any uni students reading would be interested in running with this just drop me a PM and I'll help where I can.
 

GinaGeo

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25+ (exact age unknown) 12hh pony mare. PTS due to Cushings.
20+ (exact age unknown) 14.1hh arab x appaloosa gelding. He didn't have many teeth left and couldn't eat hay or haylage. I can't turn out on grass in winter - they have to live on my track and eat forage. He went round and fat having spent the summer eating slops and gumming grass. His hocks had also gone and him rolling was turning into a scary event as none of us were sure when he might not manage to get himself up.
 

Brownmare

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Forgot to add my stats!
1. 24yr old 14.2 arab colic from strangulating lipoma
2. 12yr old tb broken leg from kick in field
3. 35yr old 13.2 pony chronic lymphangitis
4. 11yr old wb kissing spines
There are others but I can't remember exact ages
 

JackFrost

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It reflects what I've seen over 50 years of being around horses, that the vast majority never get anywhere near their mid twenties.

I started the thread because I thought social media was making a lot of people feel very guilty that their horses didn't make it to old age. I really hope this thread helps with that.

We humans bred horses up in size from what was natural to make them more useful to us, and in doing so we made them very fragile :(
Yes, sadly it does confirm what I;ve heard said anecdotally, also about certain ages at which there seems to be increased mortality, but if they get past these ages they are then 'safer' for the next couple of years. The matter of breeds may also be quite telling, so good that this is included. I remember someone saying that these stages seemed especially predominant in thoroughbreds.

My question was more a nerdy statistics one, so I am hoping there may be a nerdy statistician who can put me right on this.
The thread is very enlightening, and the first time I have seen an 'honest' effort to find out how long horses do actually live.
 

MissTyc

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What size were the 40 year olds?

13.3hh and 16.3hh


They were the oldest horses I have known.

If I'm being honest, the big boy should have been put down years earlier. His owner was the type who didn't believe in it, and he did not thrive for the last few years. He was the field companion to my ulcerated eye boy, and I offered to have him put down at the same time (he would have been 39 then). He pottered on a few more years. Impressive age, but at what cost. It was a relief when he finally died in the field.

We have a 35yo at the moment, but he's a mini shetland which I gather is more common.
 

tiga71

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17 - field accident
26 - field accident
6 - PTS pedal bone fracture, wouldn't tolerate box rest
15 - colic, died on the table
31 - PTS, old age
22 - not happy or sound in the field anymore
12 - PTS both suspensories gone
18 - PTS kidney failure

None of those were mine. But I am very aware of needing to be ready and on top of it for my old boy who is 23. I would love him to live to his 30s but only if he feels well. I hope I am brave enough to do the right thing before he has a poor quality of life.
 

Surbie

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None of these are mine. This thread does give me the shivers a bit, but I am hoping our low-level work means my 15yo boy will be with me for many more years.

1. 15.2hh cob - old age - 38 (ridden till 36)
2. 14.2hh Highland - degenerative spinal disease, arthritis in hocks - 6 (pts)
3. 16.2hh ISH - likely suspensory & SI damage, v difficult to diagnose as both vet and needle phobic - 6 (pts)
4. 15.1hh Quarter horse - colic - 16 (pts)
5. 14hh Connemara X - old age - 25 (pts)
6. 15.1hh cob - copd - 25 (pts)
7. 13.2hh New Forest - colic - 26 (pts)
 
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