The difference between young and senior horse shown in hilarious viral clip

A TikTok video showcasing the stark difference in energy between a lively young horse and her much older, more reserved companion has gone viral.

Racking up 1.9 million views, the footage shows a brown horse, who is full of beans, kicking her hind legs in the air and cantering into the distance. Then, the camera turns to a white horse who is watching the performance, standing next to their owner, Laura (@laurajayne12345).

The text layered over the video says: “the difference between a [five-year-old] and a [29-year-old] followed by, “can you guess which is which?” in the caption.

On average, horses live to be about 25 to 30 years old, however, in human years, they are much-older than it seems. A one-year-old horse is roughly equivalent to a six and a half-year-old human, according to the Willowbrook Riding Centre, which is approved by the Association of British Riding Schools (ABRS).

Newsweek reached out to @laurajayne12345 for comment via TikTok. We could not verify the details of the case.

After the first few years, each year of a horse’s life is roughly equal to about two and a half years.

So, the five-year-old brown horse in the video is like a 23-year-old person and the white one is approximately 83 years old in human terms. So there’s no surprise that she isn’t running and jumping like her younger sister.

Newsweek reached out to animal expert Axel Lagercrantz, CEO of Pets4Homes, the U.K.’s largest pet rehoming site, to find out more about how a horse ages.

“As they age, horses need a little extra care because they can suffer from all sorts of age-related health issues that need attention,” he said.

“Just as in people, old horses can suffer from arthritis, with the majority of them experiencing it. You may notice that they have a much shorter stride and their movements are slower, with reduced flexibility.”

Lagercrantz explained that some older horses struggle to keep the weight on them, while others may experience obesity later in life because they’re getting less exercise.

He added: “Older horses also often begin to experience dental issues. Their front teeth – the incisors – tend to meet at a more acute angle as they age, which causes them to become too long and wear unevenly.

“This means their ability to graze is affected and they can’t pull hay out of hay nets easily. Molars also often get loose, and eventually fall out, meaning that old horses lose their ability to grind food.”

At the time of publishing, the video had over 326,000 likes and many comments.

“The 29-year-old was like: *sigh* see what I put up with,” said one user, and the owner agreed: “She really was. She is not a huge fan of having to babysit her younger sister while she’s on paddock rest.”

Another comment with over 24,000 likes said: “She said: That was dramatic,” and Laura responded to confirm: “She wasn’t impressed.”

“I’m pretty sure the grey just rolled her eyes at the youngster, bless her she looks like a kind soul,” said a third commenter, and a fourth said: “29 year old one look at you and really said ‘you saw that too, right?'”

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