EQUINE DENTISTRY:

It was our yearly dentistry day for our herd at our sanctuary yesterday. We are very pleased to report that all was well with all of our horse's teeth, from our tiniest 5-hand mini to our big 17h drafts, and all of the other horses in between.

5 of our horses had dentistry without the need for any sedation due to the skill of our veterinarian dentist and our empathic handling approach, so all of our training paid off really well yesterday with our residents. Which we are very pleased about.

Our equine vet has been doing our herds teeth for more than a decade now and he is convinced that our herd do so well, with minimum floating due to our dietary approach, which offers coarse grass in the form of hay and straw, fed in a trickle feeding way through our Natural Horse Slow Feeder Haynets, which helps to keep the teeth naturally filed through the grinding action required to break down these more species-appropriate grasses. He always comments that there are no hooks and minimum filing to our horse's teeth through this approach.

Another aspect that is always on my mind is the connection between having well-maintained dental care and hoof balance for horses.

Which is due to the horse's whole body being out if the teeth are out, which affects the TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint) causing a knock-on effect throughout the whole body of the horse.

Equine Vet, barefoot advocate and equine dentist Tomas Teskey has spoken extensively about this subject. Along with so many others, so have a Google about this to see lots of articles written about equine body health and a well-balanced mouth, which is well proven and a fascinating subject to learn more about for sure.

Therefore, if you have a horse, pony or donkey, we urge you to have their teeth looked at by a qualified equine dentist at least once per year.

To see our Slow Feed Haynets please see this link: www.naturalhorse.co.nz/slow-feed-haynets