Guessing the Age of a Horse

[JaredWoodcock]

I have a local guy who is a bit of a draft horse collector. He has been very generous to me over the years in borrowing equipment and offering help. Right now I am in the market for another horse and I swung by his farm the other day. He pretty much said he would sell me almost any of his non-retired horses because he knows they will get a good home. I trust this mans honesty but Im not sure on his ability to keep track of his horses ages. There are two horses that I think would fit my needs. According to his recollections they are between 8 and 12. I looked over their teeth in the field and everything looked ok but I dont have any experience in guessing ages from teeth or other features.

Does anyone have any advice on verifying ages?

Thanks
Jared

[Does’ Leap]

I suggest “googling” it. You will come up with plenty of good information with pictures. Here are a couple resources:

https://www.uaex.edu/publications/PDF/FSA-3123.pdf
http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G2842

George

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Does' Leap.

[mitchmaine]

hi jared,
its one of those things you have to develop a language for. look at lots of horses and build up a memory of how teeth look over time. i don’t think i do it well and neither do most vets. its a funny science. the amish call a 12 year old horse smooth mouth because the grinding surface if the front six teeth top and bottom (12 teeth) lose their cups. the cross section of the tooth goes from squarish when they are young to roundish when they get around 10 -12 and triangular in older horses. there is a groove in the teeth a brown color, and starts showing up around 9-10 working its way down. if its halfway down, your horse is over 12. if its all the way down the tooth he might be 18-20. if the groove is all the way down a triangular tooth, bad sign, but don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, right?

[JaredWoodcock]

Thanks for the info. I tried to read up a bunch but those descriptions help.

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