Horse Years

You heard that a one year for a dog is like 7 years for a human. What exactly does that mean? It basically means you're trying to take the lifespan of a dog - which is on average 10 years - and equate it to a human's lifespan, which is 70 years on average.

Although it sounds simple, there's a lot of consideration when comparing an animal's life span to that of a human and even for dogs, it’s a lot more complicated than just giving it a 1:7 ratio. What about other animals, like horses?

Well, there's no exact ratio of one horse year to one human year. It varies as the horse ages. The younger the horse, the larger the gap of horse years to human years. The first year of a horse is equal to about 6 human years, the second year of horse is equal to 5 human years, the third year of horse is equal to 4 human years, the fourth year equal to about 3 human years, and after that, every horse year equates to 2.5 human years.

Confused? Me too! There's a lot of contributing factors to make up these equations, and there's no straight forward correlation. Luckily, others have already done the work! If you want to know how old your horse is in human years, find out here for a fast and easy estimate.

So what are some of these contributing factors? The rates of maturity are compared from human to horse -- both physically and mentally. For example, humans first walk on average at about 18 months, but horses, like many other mammals, can walk on their very first day! At one year, a horse is about 2/3's of its adult weight, for humans this comes at age 13. Thirteen is also about the age at which humans start adolescence -- for a horse this is around age 2.

Other factors when trying to equate a horses age to a humans age include aerobic capacity, maximum muscle weight, menopause and average life spans.

This is all based on life expectancy and mortality rate, both of which are lower in horses, giving them less time for trial and error. When you're taking care of your horse, it’s nice to get it right the first time - Mane 'n Tail products will save you time and energy.

Do your homework and take the advice of others. The website SmartPak caters to horse owners and lets them write their own reviews of products they like. Mane 'n Tail products have great reviews. "I have tried other products, but I keep coming back," writes Blondee. "If you want rich lather and a shiny coat don't shop for anything else."

Mane 'n Tail products have been tried and tested for over 40 years. With Mane 'n Tail products, like their Original Mane 'n Tail Shampoo, you can ensure that every bath your horse receives counts!

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Photo courtesy of Ashley Pechacek