Common Questions
“My horse has lost a bunch of weight and I feed him double what I feed the other horses”
“Why does he turn his head when he eats?”
“When I try to turn her to the right she really throws her head. I have changed bits and she still does it”
“He opens his mouth and all of his grain falls out”
“I put a bit in his mouth, but when I take it out it gets stuck and he throws his head”
“When I rub her on the side of her face she tosses’s her head like something hurts”
These are all questions I have been asked to fix. The best part about these questions is that for the most part they are a simple fix to a complex problem in your horse’s mouth. Horse’s when they eat they grind. So picture this for me, the lips open and pull the grass or hay to the first set of teeth. They in return open and chomp down tearing the grass or hay apart. The tongue then acts as a conveyer belt and pushes the hay back to the first set of check teeth (pre molars). As the tongue moves it rolls the grass in a spiral motion (have you even taken grass or hay out of your horse’s mouth with a bit in and seen how it is already twisted up?) The pre molars break the grass down in to smaller pieces and they move back they are then grinded up with the molars. Giving you a small piece of grass less then a half inch long.
Answers
Horse’s teeth grow through out there life. They erupt. The eruption rate differs depending on where and what kind of feed the horses are on. That is why horses get sharp points on there teeth. As they go through the chewing process if one tooth is got a point and does not allow it to work properly we have now become unbalanced. Proper balance in a horse is essential to there health. Maybe they did not shed there deciduous teeth as a youngster. Horse’s shed teeth just as we humans do. They are called “caps” it is not uncommon to find a horse at 5 or 6 yrs old that is having a problem eating due to them not shedding there caps. These are just a couple of the questions and answers that Complete Equine Dentistry can offer you and your horse.
