Aging by teeth

[clarencefortner]

What is everyone's opinion on aging a horse by their teeth?
I have always been told different things by different people. Some people I'm close to say that it is decently accurate and others say it's not at all.

I have a gelding who's past is pretty unclear. I got him almost 8 years ago as a 12 year old so he would be almost 20 now.
I had a dentist out a few days ago. She seemed very knowledgeable and a lot of people recommended her to me. She said after looking at his physical condition and his teeth that she was very confident that he was not 20, and he was more like 15, 17 at the oldest.
I know there is no way to know how old he is 100% but how accurate do you think you can age with teeth?

 

[wbvs58]

If someone knows what they are doing and looks carefully at the tables of the teeth they should be able to get inside of 2 years at 15 years of age.

Ken

 

[Silver]

A horse in that age bracket should be able to be reasonably aged using Galvayne's groove.

 

[Bigfoot]

What is everyone's opinion on aging a horse by their teeth?
I have always been told different things by different people. Some people I'm close to say that it is decently accurate and others say it's not at all.

I have a gelding who's past is pretty unclear. I got him almost 8 years ago as a 12 year old so he would be almost 20 now.
I had a dentist out a few days ago. She seemed very knowledgeable and a lot of people recommended her to me. She said after looking at his physical condition and his teeth that she was very confident that he was not 20, and he was more like 15, 17 at the oldest.
I know there is no way to know how old he is 100% but how accurate do you think you can age with teeth?

It was 8 when you bought it, because that's a great age for a horse. It's out of silly adolescent behavior, and has many good years ahead of it.