DURATION OF THE LIFE OF THE HORSE. 



According to Biiffon, the duration of the Hfe of the horse 

 is, as in all other species of animals, proportionate to the dura- 

 tion of its growth. Man, who is fourteen years in growth, lives 

 six or seven times that length of time ; that is to say, he may 

 live to 90 or 100. The horse, which requires about four years to 

 attain its growth, may live six or seven times that length of 

 time ; that is, to twenty-five or thirty years. Examples which 

 are contrary to this rule are so rare that they need hardly be 

 regarded as exceptions of consequence ; as the more common 

 draft-horses acquire their growth in less time than better-bred 

 horses, they also live a shorter time, — fifteen or sixteen years. 



According to Bourgelat, " the age of the horse can be esti- 

 mated at eighteen to twenty years. The number of those which 

 pass this age is excessively small." 



Aristotle noted that horses which are nourished in stables 

 live for a shorter time than those which are raised in herds ; the 

 conditions of slavery and domesticity diminish their powers of 

 resistance to the wear and tear of life. 



Athenseus and Pliny claim to have known the horse to 

 attain the age of sixty-five or even seventy years. Augustus 

 Nipheus speaks of a horse belonging to Ferdinand I which was 

 over seventy, but these observations are only exceptions similar 

 to those which we sometimes find in the human species. 



Hartman and Buffon both note that the life of mares is 

 generally longer than that of horses. This observation was 

 already made by Aristotle (Hist. Animal., lib. v), and corre- 

 sponds to the same rule in the human race, where women gen- 

 erally live to a greater age than men. Hartman claims that it 

 is "an undoubtable sign that a breeding horse is well bred and 

 in good health when it is slow in development. Those which 

 do not attain their complete growth until six or seven years, ex- 

 cepting in cases of accident, are useful for twenty years or more, 

 (46) 



