It is generally accepted that natural conditions are the most suitable for animals. Some especially impressionable people think that only there they live happily ever after. Is it really so?
Do you know how long a horse lives at home and in nature? First, let's deal with the stable content. In books there is information about 18-20 years old, but experienced horse breeders say that a horse can live much longer.
From a biological point of view, the maximum age of an animal is approximately six to seven times the time it takes for it to reach physiological maturity, after which the body stops growing completely.
So how long does a horse live in this case? Given that her body stops growing at the age of six, her age could theoretically be 36!
Legends say that some stallions reached an amazing age of 60, but more or less reliable documentary sources contain information only about 40 years. Of course, in many ways, how long a horse lives depends on the conditions of its maintenance. Thus, a working peasant mare is unlikely to last at least 20 years.
Do not assume that centenarians can beonly stallions or only mares. The skeleton of a stallion of the famous Emperor Frederick II is exhibited at the University of Berlin. Biologists have proven that the age of the animal at the time of his death was 40 years old.
Scientist Smith N. wrote about a mare, whose age was 46 years old, and during all this time she gave birth to more than 35 foals. However, how long a horse lives depends to a large extent on the breed and thoroughbredness of the horse.
A vivid example of this is the domestic horse Budynok. It was a thoroughbred race stallion, which for all his years of "service" managed to set more than one world record.
He lived to the venerable age of 32, and for the last few years he was on “retirement”, being at the full pay of one of the stables at the Academy of K. I. Scriabin.
By the way, how many years do horses live if Arabian blood flows in them? The famous mares of the Terek stud farm (Tarasha, Sahara and Strada) lived to be 31 years old. The stallion Raafat, donated by the Egyptian authorities, who also lived in the stables of the Terek stud farm, lived to be 29 years old.
We remind you once again that in the ancient manuscripts of the same Arabs there is information about even more "durable" animals, which sometimes outlived their owner, or even two.
It is no coincidence that we spent so much time looking at the longevity of human-cared pedigree horses. This was done to better compare with their wild relatives.
Of course, there are very few of the latter,but a lot of information about this issue was left by naturalists who lived in the recent past.
So how long does a horse live on average in natural conditions? In this case, her lifespan depends on a number of factors: diseases, predators, and just accidents and injuries.
Naturalists pointed out that only every tenth stallion lived to the age of 13-15, and with mares the situation was even sadder.
Domesticated horses began to live much longer. The development of modern pharmaceuticals suggests that new record holders will soon appear.
