Yesterday we had Dustin Lucas (Equine Dentist) to the Ranch to work on some of the horses teeth. We did 10 horses total, some young some old. Many people do not know how important it is to get dental work done on a horse. I have one story that is a good example of how not being educated turns into abuse. One of our older horses, Jake a huge beautiful Thoroughbred, has had a terrible time getting weight on since we rescued him this summer. More than likely his teeth have not been touched since he was a young guy on the track. He had several upper teeth that had completely rotted away and the lower teeth in the back were growing into the holes in the top making it to where he could not chew his food properly. This is not only very painful but it also causes many health problems. They do not digest properly so they poop out most of the nutrition. Their gums begin to rot because they cannot chew properly. They cannot open their mouth wide enough to let the old food in the back fall out.  Also in some severe cases a horse can Colic and die. The sharp edges on the teeth also create painful cuts and ulcers inside the mouth.

This is not only important for the old guys, it is just as equally important for all captive horses. At different stages in life different teeth grow in and fall out. They are not in the wild where they eat natural things that grind their teeth so their teeth get very very sharp. As I said earlier that creates very painful sores in their mouth and it makes it painful for a bit to be held in their mouth. Many bad mannered horses have bad teeth. Fix the teeth and you can more than likely fix the horse.

 So please if you have horses get their teeth worked on. Not floated. Make sure the person has gone to Equine dentistry school.

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