How Can You Tell a Horse’s Age by Its Teeth?

“How can you tell the age of a horse just by looking at its teeth?”

Great question, Rubie! Horse teeth are an approximator of age. That means that the teeth can give us a clue as to how old the horse is. But they cannot always tell us the exact age, because a horse’s teeth can be affected by factors such as what it eats and its genetics.1 Still, there are some easy ways to get a moderately good estimate of a horse’s age by examining its teeth.

Milk Teeth

First, young horses have specific teeth, called milk teeth, that serve as their baby teeth. These teeth begin to be replaced when a horse is roughly two and a half.2 So if a horse still has all its milk teeth, it’s probably less than three years old. Usually, by the time a horse is five, it will have shed all its milk teeth.3

Cups

After shedding their milk teeth, horses keep their teeth for the remainder of their lives. However, their teeth begin to wear down over time. On the front teeth, called incisors, there are brown marks, called infundibula, or cups. These cups fade over time, which can also help you estimate a horse’s age.4

Galvayne’s Groove

The incisors also feature something called Galvayne’s groove, which is a dark line running down the middle of the tooth that first appears around age 10, and covers the full length by age 20. It is then progressively lost until age 30.5

Dental Stars

Dental stars also help estimate a horse’s age. Around age 10, it appears as a thin line on the incisors, but as the horse ages, the line moves toward the center of the tooth and becomes more like an oval.6

Hook

At the rear of the upper jaw’s incisors, there is a hook that usually shows up when a horse is about seven, but it can disappear and reappear around 11.7

Conclusion

Most horses in captivity can live 25–30 years, and sometimes even longer with good care.8 Of course, in a pre-fall world, like other animals, horses would not have died because everything was created very good. Before Adam sinned, there would have been no need to worry about a horse’s age.

Do you have any questions about animals and created kinds? Well, you can ask me, Inspector Barry Mins! Have your parents help you fill out this form, and you might get your question answered in my column.

Footnotes

1. Katherine Blocksdorf, “How to Tell a Horse’s Age by Its Teeth,” The Spruce Pets, December 18, 2025, https://www.thesprucepets.com/how-to-tell-a-horses-age-by-its-teeth-1887383.
2. Patricia A. Evans and Nancy Jack, “Aging Horses by Their Teeth,” Utah State University, revised May 2020 by Karl Hoopes, https://extension.usu.edu/equine/research/aging-horses-by-their-teeth.
3. Blocksdorf, “How to Tell a Horse’s Age.”
4. American Association of Equine Practitioners, Official Guide for Determining the Age of the Horse (Lexington, KY: American Association of Equine Practitioners, January 1988): 5, accessed June 9, 2026, https://www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/appendix-g-aging-horse.pdf.
5. Evans and Jack, “Aging Horses by Their Teeth.”
6. Horses and Us, “How to Tell a Horse’s Age by Its Teeth: Ultimate Guide,” accessed June 5, 2026, http://horsesandus.com/how-to-tell-a-horses-age-by-its-teeth/.
7. Blocksdorf, “How to Tell a Horse’s Age.”
8. Kaela Schraer, “How Long Do Horses Live?” PetMD, updated January 10, 2025, https://www.petmd.com/horse/how-long-do-horses-live.