Trainer thinks horse is 7/8 yes based on teeth but actually 10. 😂

[Slavetolove]

So currently full loaning the most gorgeous girl cob. We have a trainer who is working with my daughter (15) and giving her lessons.

dhorse is 10, her passport says she was born 2011. Her owner got her in 2014 and said she was 3. She doesn’t look like a yearling (which she would have been if she’s 8ish)

she said her teeth have a hook on still?

lol is this even possible? Her Irish passport says she was born 2011 lol

Get the microchip checked to see if it's her passport.

What does your dentist say?

She’s got dentist next eeek so we will see!

i don’t think she’s chipped..

2011 was the first year all foals had to be microchipped IIRC, so she should have a microchip and the number of it should be in her passport.

She’s not microchipped by the details in her passport, there’s no vaccine records either x

Teeth are not an exact science. 2 years out is pretty close.

Does your trainer have a lot of equine dental experience? My understanding was that ageing a horse by its teeth is very accurate up to the age of 5 and again when it’s older but not so easy in the ‘middle years’. This article is a useful starting point.

The deadline for all horses to have a compulsory microchip was October 2020 so the horse’s owner should get onto that PDQ. Every time our horses are vaccinated the vet checks the microchip (and that’s been happening for several years before the deadline) so I’d be surprised if this horse doesn’t have a chip as I’d have thought the vet would mention it.

Btw the convention on horse’s ages is they were all considered to have the same birthday on 1st January - with passports we should be able to know their actual birthday (the vast majority of which are in the spring) but if they haven’t reached their actual birth date yet then they’ll be ‘rising 5 etc’ so your horse, born in 2011, will
either be 11 or rising 11. It is not at all unheard of for Irish passports to be inaccurate or not actually belong to the horse they’re supposed to

There’s no birthday in passport just 2011.

i got her vaccine last month and the vet didn’t scan her. She’s got her second next week so I will ask! X

Our vet doesn’t check for a microchip unless asked.

I have an Irish horse who’s passport birth year does not tally up with his dental age. And I have another Irish horse who’s passport is very minimalist on any identifying information at all, but has 2 microchip numbers - he does indeed have both microchips. Our vet has checked them in the past, and we are about to take both horses (in spite of them ‘just’ being hairy Irish cobs) to compete in Europe, where they will have their chips scanned several times. Well worth having them done. But as for dental age, the Irish are fairly well known for asking you how old you would like a horse to be when you buy it, and putting that age in the passport. 4 is always a good age to buy a horse at, but it could be any age from 2 upwards really.