Old Billy

{{Short description|Longest-living horse on record}}

File:BillyBedfordMuseum.JPG head on display in Bedford Museum]]

Old Billy (also called Billy or Ol' Billy) was the longest-living horse on record. Old Billy was verified to be 62 at his death.{{cite book|title=Ensminger Horses and Horsemanship|pages=46–50}} Born in Woolston, Cheshire, England in 1760,{{Cite web |last=Meier |first=Allison |date=2013-03-04 |title=Morbid Monday: The Split Head of Old Billy, the World's Oldest Horse |url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/morbid-monday-split-head-of-the-worlds-oldest-horse |access-date=2023-01-20 |website=Atlas Obscura |language=en}} Billy adventured and became a barge horse that pulled barges up and down canals. Old Billy was said to look like a big cob/shire horse, and was brown with a white blaze.{{cite web|url=http://www.fbresearch.org/HorseFacts/Facts/|title=The Mane Facts About Horse Health |work=HorseFacts.org|accessdate=2009-01-16 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081127035247/http://www.fbresearch.org/horsefacts/facts/|archivedate=November 27, 2008}} Billy died on 27 November 1822 at the estate of William Earle, a director of the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company, in Everton, Liverpool.{{Cite web |title=Old Billy The Barge Horse |url=https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Old-Billy-The-Barge-Horse/ |access-date=2023-01-20 |website=Historic UK |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |last=Goldsmith |first=Liz |date=2021-01-19 |title=Old Billy, the World's Oldest Horse |url=https://equineink.com/2021/01/18/old-billy-the-worlds-oldest-horse/ |access-date=2023-01-20 |website=EQUINE Ink |language=en-US}}

Billy's skull now resides in the Manchester Museum.{{cite web|url=http://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/kids/amazingfacts/fileuploadmax10mb,164580,en.pdf|title=Amazing Facts From The Manchester Museum|work=Manchester Museum|accessdate=2013-01-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203092755/http://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/kids/amazingfacts/fileuploadmax10mb,164580,en.pdf|archive-date=2014-02-03|url-status=dead}} A lithograph was published, showing Old Billy with Squire Henry Harrison, who had "known the animal for fifty-nine years", and a portrait of him is held at the Warrington Museum & Art Gallery.{{cite web|last=Meier|first=Allison|title=Morbid Monday: The Split Head of Old Billy|url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/morbid-monday-split-head-of-the-worlds-oldest-horse|website=Atlas Obscura|accessdate=14 July 2019|language=en|date=4 March 2013}}