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Main \\ Outdoor Activities \\ Earth \\ Equestrian Sport \\ Facts of Horses \\
  Is Your Horse Afraid To Smile?

horse

If you're taking time to read this article, chances are you want the very best for your horse. Today, a horse is our friend, companion, and in some cases, our livelihood. It is in our best interest, and our horse's, to provide the best health care possible so they may live longer and happier lives. Special attention is given to make certain our horses are wormed every two months, kept current on all the necessary inoculations, obtain the highest quality hay and grain, have proper fitting saddles and tack, provide frequent sessions of massage therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic, and shoeing. And, know how important shoeing is to our horse's performance, therefore, we schedule routine visits from our farrier.


Did you know?


Many of us overlook another very important aspect of general health maintenance for our horses that is, care for their Teeth. Some horses will not display symptoms of dental problems, but all horses develop sharp pain-inflicting points among other irregularities of the teeth. We are all concerned with our horse's comfort. In some cases, whole mouth dentistry, properly done, can alleviate and often eradicate certain cases of colic, eliminate mild lameness, clear runny eyes, lessen and even cure cribbing. Dentistry may also promote softer collection and flexion, re-muscle an atrophic top-line, and lessen the severity of spooking. There are many other obvious issues related to dentistry, such as correcting head tossing, lessening the amount of grain lost while eating, drooling, change a bad or undesirable attitude, loss of weight and fighting or fidgeting with the bit.


Biomechanics


This all happens with whole mouth dentistry and equilibration best explained as equal crown heightening of teeth, not just floating! For instance : a male horse can have up to 44 teeth and a mare up to 38 teeth. These teeth will continue to erupt at different degrees, from socket in the mandible, until it reaches 20-25 years of age. Horses in the wild will eat coarse grasses and graze up to 20 hours a day. The silica or abrasives in the grasses will naturally keep the teeth worn down to the proper angle and height. Most domesticated horses are kept in stalls or small pastures, fed processed feed, or graze limited amounts of time on fine grass. As a result, they do not receive the benefit of the abrasives necessary to keep the teeth evenly worn. Incisors will not wear at the same rate as the molar table. As this process occurs, the horse adjusts its natural chewing motion from a side-to-side motion, to one of an up-and-down motion. This accentuates the unevenness of the molar table due to the fact that the lower molar table is narrower than the upper molar table. This causes the upper molar table to become cupped from the lower molar table pounding into it, accentuating the points of the upper molar table.


Having only the best intentions, horse owners and trainers have these points 'floated' or removed. Floating, however, is just the beginning of whole mouth dentistry and equilibration. Floating represents only 10% of the total work required to properly equilibrate the mouth, especially for the performance horse. The molars have a surface or table which the horse uses to grind its food when the upper and lower molar tables meet properly. Horses have a chewing motion starting with the lower mandible going down to one side, out, up and in, then down to the other side, out, up and in again. Molars can very often erupt at different rates as the result of the unbalance of individual horses chewing patterns. This can be the result of a wide range of issues. Here are just a few of them:


Short Skulls-specific breeds such as Quarter Horses, Arabians, Morgan's and Miniatures


Injuries


Missing teeth and teeth erupting in an outwardly, crooked pattern instead of the normal vertical angle


Unevenness of the molar tables


With regard to molar tables, a wave effect can be created with commonly occurring hooks and ramps. These occur at the end of the molar table. A ramp can be at the front or rear of the bottom molar table. A hook is usually found at the front of the top molar table.


These hooks and ramps can even protrude in the opposing gum line. The hooks can limit the anterior and posterior movement of the mandible causing poor performance in the area of rounding up. It also may cause hollowing out or fighting the bit. It can cause poor axial flow of the food bolus and make eating a chore for the horse.


Another example, which causes problems, are ramps. That is, when the back of the last molar is jabbed up into the upper gum line, hitting on an acupressure point (bladder meridian) that has been found to cause lameness in the rear hocks. It would be essential to check the mouth in this situation especially if radiographs of the hock show no reason why this lameness has occurred.


The washboard effect occurs when the entire table is jagged. This is called accentuated transverse ridging. All cases in which unevenness of the molar table is described will prevent a horse's mandible from moving front to back or side to side or both. Anything that restricts the forward and backward movement of the mandible is believed to be detrimental to downward transitions and collection.


In addition, restriction of movement to the left and right of the mandible can correspond to the poor left to right flexion in the direction of the restriction.
Young horses have a natural table angle of 10-15 degrees, not flat, which most floaters will tend to create. Any deviation of this natural jaw movement or angle of the molar tables or incisors will throw the horse off physically as they age.


One of the major goals of whole mouth dentistry and equilibration is to create a three point balance or S.C.O. (Simultaneous Centric Occlusion) with incisors, molars, and TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint) all having equal pressure at rest.

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