Have you heard of “JMan”?
He died not long age after celebrating his 40th birthday at Mitten Misfits Farm Sanctuary in Grand Ledge, Mich. They said he was 138 years old in human years, but how did they calculate it?. I’ve seen different formulas to calculate a horse’s age on the web and it urns out it’s not as simple as calculating the human equivalent of a dogs age by simply multiplying by . This is because horses mature more quickly when they’re younger. It’s widely accepted that the first 3 years of horse life equal to an average of 6 human years each and each subsequent horse year is equal to 2.5 human years.
A Google search gives the average lifespan of a domestic horse at
20 to 30 years.
Of course some horses die much sooner while others live longer. The oldest horse whose age can be verified is “Old Billy,” foaled 1760 in the UK. Billy died on 27 November 1822 at the age of 62. But years lived is not necessarily years being healthy and active, years working or being ridden. As they age there comes a time in some horse’s lives that they are deemed no longer ’useful’ and become an inconvenience and a financial burden and some horse owners prefer to dispose of these unfortunate animals. But how does one define ‘useful’? I guess it depends on the reasons you got a particular horse in the first place.
I know, no matter her age, my horse will always be ‘useful.’ She was never a means to an end (trophies and ribbons) or a commodity (training and reselling or producing offspring), but a companion. She’s a sentient being with whom I’ve developed a relationship and love spending time with. We still ride but when she doesn’t enjoy that anymore I’ll be happy with walks in-hand, luxurious grooming sessions and just watching her graze or kick up her heels in the field.