THE LIFE OF A HORSE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5380, 28 January 1929, Page 3

THE LIFE OF A HORSE.

HOW LONG DO THEY LIVE?

SOME RECORDS.

The following extract from an. article in th© Otago Witness by “Murihuku” should be of interest to farmers and others interested in hordes, How lang do horses live ? You can always work up a good: argument along these lines. I was once nearly thrown out of a meeting because I said we had a Shetland, pony 35 years old! I know, because I rode the little beggar to school, and we didn’t get him until he was very much shopsoiled. So I took the trouble to look up some records, and this is what I found: —

“Tommy, a Welsh was last year living in retirement- near Conway, after working regularly for 38 years. Owned by Mr William Rowlands. 'He never needed a vet.’

“Old-Peter, who went from England to the Argentine, died! there in 1915, aged 47. He sired 17 foals the year be died !

‘‘Old Bill, the ptfoper.ty of Mr Petrie, of Edinburgh, lived - to be 60. Professor Owen Williams vouched for his age, his father having attended him.

“Jolly, owned by Sir BellinghamGraham, at Norton Conyers, near Rippon, lived to be 62.” Many other records of remarkable equine longevity might be added - , but that’ of Clover, which died at the age of 53 in 1924, is particular,ly interesting, in that he retained his teeth to the end. The .skeleton and skull have been placed on view at the America'n Exhibition of Natural History, New York.

Now, if. anybody in New Zealand wants to join in this old-age pension recoi.d of horses there are some standards to wiork on ’.