Estimates of longevity and causes of culling and death in Swedish warmblood and coldblood horses

Data on several different horse populations were analysed and compared rega rding length of life and diseases or injuries leading to death or culling. Tn order to include information for horses still alive, a failure time (sur vival) analysis was used. The first material included 1847 warmblood horses born between 1968 and 1982, that had participated in the Swedish Riding Ho rse Quality Test (RHQT) as 4-year-olds. The next two materials included 344 warmblood and 204 coldblood horses owned by the Swedish Cavalry Horse Foun dation (CHF), born between 1970 and 1975. The last population consisted of 481 warmblood brood-mares born between 1965 and 1967. According to this stu dy it was important to estimate the median length of life separately for ea ch sex. For warmblood brood-mares and mares that had participated in the RH QT, comparable figures of 18.6 and 18.3 years were found. Close agreement w as also found between geldings of the CHF and males that had participated i n the RHQT; the estimates were 14.7 and 13.9 years, respectively. There was a positive trend in the median length of life over time for horses that ha d participated in the RHQT, and the median length-of-life curve increased m ore steeply for mares than for males. This study showed a longer median len gth of life for coldblood geldings, 17.6 years, than for the mares, 16.4 ye ars. The most common causes of death of warmblood horses were diseases of t he musculoskeletal system (56-57%), respiratory diseases (8-9%), diseases o f the digestive system (5-6%) and accidents (3-9%). The primary causes of d eath of coldblood horses were temperamental disorders (23%), diseases of th e musculoskeletal system (14%) and hoof diseases (8%). (C) 2000 Elsevier Sc ience B.V. All rights reserved.