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

1. 25yrs - laminitus/cushings pts [mine] pony
2. 34yr - old age [mine] arab
3. 24 - arthritis mainly from old injuries and poor teeth -pts event horse
4. 13 - shiverer to severe lamness with bone spurs - pts potential dressage horse
5. 18 - cancer pts lusitano
6. 20 - field injury pts WB
7. 24 - cushings/cancer - pts pony
Mean= 22.6
I also know of numerous other ones that lived into their 20's at least but don't know the exact age of death
Currently own a 23yr old who i strongly suspect won't live as long as the 34yr old did but who know?!
 
I didn't read through all of this because it made for scary reading - I just hate thinking about losing any of them :(

The only one I've lost so far was my TB mare. She was 19 (two weeks away from being 20) and broke her leg in the field.
 
7 - DDFT/collateral ligaments done in both front feet
6 - broke down behind stifles/hocks/ligaments/tendons
6 - KS/ulcers/ligament damage/bony changes in feet & hocks = very angry in pain horse.
This is all in a few years one after another which I don't want a repeat of again.
 
1. 20 - Heart attack
2. 18 - Cancer
3. 30 - Old age
4. Later 20's - Leg injury
5. Younger than 10, maybe 9 - Back problems
6. 29 - Old age coupled with fall in field
7. 23 - Leg injury
8. Mid-twenties - Back pain
9. 10-ish - So many things wrong I can't even begin! Poor thing.
10. Late twenties - Old age and bad doer coming into winter.

I know there are more, but those are the ones I can think of.
 
18 years old - severe navicular
13 years old - severe behavioural problems, my mum died of cancer and I couldn’t afford to keep her as a field ornament on my own.

I have a 20 year old 16.2hh warmblood going strong and a 9 year old holsteiner
 
Thank you for this. I lost a horse at 13 following a field injury. I did think I’d failed him. This helps to ease the burden, although in a sad kind of way.
First horse: 21 dropped dead in field
Second horse: 13 field injury
Third horse: 22 arthritis

I sold one horse a couple of years ago, she’s still going strong at 25. I think it’s her inherent naughtiness that keeps her going! I share a farrier with the new owner - he told me that the other day she kicked all his tools over and ran off down the yard.
 
I'll do some sums when all the people who only is the forum during the week have had a chance to join in, but it's looking very interesting. Average, I think, is going to come somewhere mood teens.

But for horses that don't die of accidents I think I can see three clusters. One at around 6/7 as riding then exposes big problems that they have. One in mid teens as the affects of aging make their mark on the less robust ones. And one in the twenties as they reach their natural life span.
 
I'll repeat mine with reasons, since the reasons people are giving also appear to be significant

1. 20 kidney failure
2. 4 blind
3. 10 wobbler
4. 8 head fractures and incurable pain
5. 11 owner choice (horse had been rehabbed from lameness but had behavioural issues).
6. 26 old age
7. 7 probable ESPA
8. 8 kissing spines with holes in
9. 16 colic
10. 13 uncontrollable cushings
11. 7 stifle lameness
12. 5 fractured pelvis overnight in stable
13. 6 dropped dead on a hack
 
1, 32 - 16.3 tbx went lame on 3 legs overnight.
2, 16 - 16 hh QHx Teeth
3, 14 - 16 hh hunter mastitis
4, 5 - 14 hh arab heart attack in transit
5, 4 - 16.1 ID grass sickness
6, 2 - 14hh cob grass sickness
7, 6 - 15.2 clyde x grass sickness
8, 7 - 16 hh shire cancer
9, 5 - 15 hh tb out of control sarcoids
10, 12 - 14.1 cob liver problems

Average age 10
 
1.26 Cushings and laminitis (14.2 pony)
2.34 Old age (part arab)
3.25 Broken leg in stable, still in work and looked amazing at the time (arab)
4.18 Leg issues (TB)
5. 14 navicular (I think! Spotty)
6.26 Lameness (german warmblood)
7. 18 Some sort of tumour vet couldn't help (cob)
8. 20 Again a tumour (pony)
 
ycbm said:
I'll do some sums when all the people who only is the forum during the week have had a chance to join in, but it's looking very interesting. Average, I think, is going to come somewhere mood teens.

But for horses that don't die of accidents I think I can see three clusters. One at around 6/7 as riding then exposes big problems that they have. One in mid teens as the affects of aging make their mark on the less robust ones. And one in the twenties as they reach their natural life span.
Click to expand...


This is a very interesting thread but I think your figures might be a bit skewed because people have listed horses that were not their own.
IME people tend to remember disasters, such a field accident, dropped dead on a hack/competing, involving horses that were not their own but don't remember those that were just quietly pts at home because of old age. I certainly remember a 10 yr old who died on the way home in the trailer after a hunter trial, who didn't belong to me. I have no idea what happened to that person's other horses, over the years. Ours are listed above by YorksG.
 
PaS that is why I asked people only to answer for horses which they personally knew. I don't think anyone forgets the death of a horse they personally knew, however it died.

So just to remind everyone still to post, horses you personally knew only please, not horses you heard about or knew by sight or name only.
 
ycbm said:
I see a lot of posts which suggest that people expect their horses to live into their late twenties or thirties. My experience over more than forty years has been that most horses are dead long before this for one reason or another.

Can we do a poll? I'll keep count because the poll feature on the forum isn't up to the job.

So, if you can spare the time, can you list the age of all the horses you've known when they died, and whose age you are sure about when they died, and we'll count up what's actually 'normal.

Please don't include small ponies, which often live a lot longer than horses, or foals. Or horses in jump racing, where the death rate is far higher than any other horse activity and will skew the figures. Please only include horses you knew personally, whether owned by you or not.

I think this is important, so that people who lose their horses earlier don't feel they have failed in some way.

So I'll start.

1. 20
2. 4
3. 10
4. 8
5. 11
6. 26
7. 7
8. 8
9. 16
10. 13
11. 7
12. 5


So the average age of death of all the horses I have known die has been 13ish. I've had the impression for some years now that the average across the country is about 15.

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

I will start with mine none old age mostly colic or other illness:

1. 25 connie x anglo arab unknown illness scouring lost weight and collapsed
2. 5 new forest pony x Colic - Mesenteric rent entrapment
3. 24 donkey Colic - stomach muscled failed to push food into intestines - thus stomach inpaction
4. 25 idx tb Laminitis complication - pedal bone dying


Livery horses here:



1. 10 warmblood hoof issues miss diagnose by vet and wrong treatment hoof breakdown
2 . 11 pony coloured cob Lymphatic cancer in the jaw lymph nodes
3 20 french tb Colic - cast got worst over time most likely Mesenteric rent entrapment or a twist
4 35 connie x Old age found horse down and despite every effort the horse was tired and could not get up even with vet

Won't do others I know and experience because it is well into over 100 horses
.
 
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1) Old type Haflinger, 29 - put down due to unresolvable choke w/o stressing the horse even more, but most likely wouldn't have lasted another winter
2) Standardbred, 32 - put down due to too many old age ailments
3) Heavy warmblood, 29 - put down due to too many old age ailments
4) Modern Haflinger, 20 - field accident (was found in the middle of the field; out of curiosity we had a post mortem done and it revealed a broken neck)
 
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Ok just a few i remember

Ran out of time - but remember some through training years


1. new forest pony.... 36 ish infection in the sheath
2. new forest pony.... 36 found dead in stable (never forget her and tell owner I found her :()
3. ID.... 5 laminitis
4. warmblood teens kick in field
5. warmblood foal of above RTA
6. cob 16 arthritis
7. tb 30 old age
8. cob 12 atheritis
9. pony 35 old age
10. tb x 11 RTA
11. pony 22 cushings
12. warmblood 23 old age atheritis



Too many during my time within yards I trained and worked at and liveried at. These are the top of my list
 
I will only put up my own as I worked in racing and breeding so have sadly seen far too many put down.

1. Thoroughbred 8 Colic
2. ID x Arab 14 Broke his hock, tore his collateral ligament, that was just after he had qualified for the World Class Performance Start programme
3. Show Pony 13 Cushings complications

I have had a fear that I can't keep a horse alive into their teens for a long time, and my current horse is now 15 and has many health issues that I felt we are on borrowed time. That said I had a 21 year old Grade A showjumper given to me to ride last year and she was as fit as a fiddle despite jumping high level tracks for most of her life and still competing at Hickstead at 19. She is now retired but still thriving.
 
1 - 23 (broken leg)
2 - 25 (melanoma)
3 - 8 (tumour)
4 - 22 (tumour)
5 - 17 (broken leg)
6 - 26 (old age)
 
I still have my first Horse - I do think she will be PTS before her 20's though due to arthritis in her hocks. At the moment she is field sound but retired. The moment it becomes too much she will be PTS.

Others:

5YO Welsh - Colic
16YO WelshxConnie - Laminitis
16YO Highland - Lamintis
4YO Cob - Behavior issues (very dangerous to be around)
27YO? WB - Arthritis
13 YO WB - Back issues

All the above were PTS.

There are loads more but I don't know the ages.
 
Without wanting to divert the topic - has anyone got any ages of how long their heavy horses lived to? I refer to my Ardennes as an old boy, but he's going to be 14 this year so no age at all really. BUT his body says otherwise.

We had a bit of a rough couple of years at my last yard, so here the ones where I know their ages. I moved yards in the end, because being on first name terms with the hunt for other people's horses being PTS is awful and I just started to think my own luck would run out....

16 months - TB x - intestinal damage due to either undiagnosed Lawsonia at birth or worm damage.
28 months - TB - intestinal damage due to worms (within months of one above). PTS at owner's request.
5 years - TB - rapid weight loss. Responded to steroids but relapsed as soon as off them. PTS with suspected worm damage.
7 years - TB - kissing spine. (I think this one could have been rehabbed, owner not interested)
10 years - TB - kick to hock. Did not come sound after 8 months off although nothing obvious on x-ray.
15 years - TB x - broke leg in field.
17 years - Welsh C - colic (I'd known and ridden this one since he was a baby, so this hit me very hard :-( )

There were a few ex-polo ponies PTS over the same period whose teeth put them into their 20s. Not sure of breeding.
 
1 - 32 yrs - 7/8th TB - neurological complications related to cushings.
1 - 6 yrs - Warmblood - dropped dead of a heart attack (had just dismounted from riding)
1 - 8 yrs - TB - colic
 
1 21 Old age and old leg injury meant no longer mobile enough to carry on
2 16 sudden infection

The rest just keep on trucking, Mac must be 25 this year and Atty is 18 both full retired for 10 and 8y years each the work shy layabouts ;) , Daisy at rising 7 will hopefully be with me for a lot longer.
 
1. 19 (arthritis and various other physical issues meant it was the kindest thing)
2. 13 (colic)
And that’s it, the only two I have owned that got to the end of their life with me so an average of sixteen. Bit depressing really as current horse is 11
 
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