Meet Pearl, New Horse

[ninnymary]

Horses teeth continue to grow. They wear down by the grinding of the grass they eat (or hay and feed). As their teeth wear, sometimes they don't wear evenly, leaving sharp points on their teeth. Say the sharp points are on the bottom teeth and when the horse chews it's food, the sharp points stick in the gums of the upper teeth, and it hurts. Their feed, grass, hay won't be well chewed and they also drop feed because it hurts to completely close their mouth.

Veterinarians use a large file to file the teeth evenly. The file can be a hand file or electric.

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How often do you have to do it? I'm leaning so much!

Mary

 

[baymule]

Whenever it becomes necessary. It isn't a real often thing, most horses teeth wear evenly most of the time.

 

[Nyboy]

I can not believe how good she looks in such a short time.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I can not believe how good she looks in such a short time.

I suspect a lot of that is more attitude than a real physical change. It takes a while to put on weight. She isn't hungry and she is getting non-threatening attention. Some grooming too.

 

[digitS']

I've watched this "floating the teeth." It's a step beyond handling, leap past grooming.

It's amazing how tolerant a 1,000# horse can be.

Certainly, the horse resists some but still!

Steve

 

[baymule]

This morning Pearl was pacing the fence wanting HAY! And FEED! She tore hay out of my hands before I even got it in the trough. Now she stands at the fence, pawing impatiently while I get her pellets. She is feeling much better, I know it's a bad habit, but I can't help but be amused that she now feel good enough to be pitching a little hissy fit.

 

[seedcorn]

Tells me how bad her condition was when you got her. & how good she now feels. When she hits her center, bet she is like a pet dog.

 

[baymule]

Tells me how bad her condition was when you got her. & how good she now feels. When she hits her center, bet she is like a pet dog.

I think she will be a big pet, too. She has a long way to go, but I am in no hurry.

 

[baymule]

On BYH we were discussing food aggression. Wouldn't you know it? This evening when I when I went to feed Pearl, she got a little too anxious as I poured her feed in the tub. All I did, I swear, was to put out my arm, palm up in a "stop" signal and she tossed her head...… WHAM! It IS a Pig Palace with low ceilings (pigs are short) and Pearl whalloped her head on the ceiling. Talk about a DO NOT CROWD ME lesson!!! She shied away with me telling her, "I didn't do that to you, you did that to yourself." I put my arm up again, palm up, and held her off for several minutes. And that's all I did. She came towards me several times, but "tell it to the hand" stopped her in her tracks. That mean ol' hand knocked her in the head and she didn't want any more of it. I went soft on my posture and she came in to eat. I rubbed her neck and talked to her. It should be interesting to see how she behaves tomorrow.

I got to remembering a mare I once had. She was 16.2 hands and weighed over 1200 pounds. She challenged Sparkles, my TWH mare who was and at 31 years old, still is the lead mare. Sparkles chased her away from the herd, not letting her eat, so I took her tub further away to feed her. Sparkles went out of her way to chase that mare away. I upturned a bucket to sit on, just to watch the herd dynamics. This went on for days. Sparkles would not let her near. That poor mare stood on the outer fringes, badly wanting "in" but Sparkles wasn't having it. Finally, after a week, Sparkles let her join the herd. Thoroughly chastised, the mare took her place in the herd, #2, right behind Sparkles.

This big mare got food aggressive. At over 1200 pounds, it could get to be a problem real fast. I got a plastic grocery bag and shook it at her, chased her away from her feed and to add insult to injury, picked up handfulls of feed and pretended to eat it. I just did to her what I observed Sparkles doing to her. I did this for several weeks and every so often, gave her a 'tuneup" lest she forget.

 

[valley ranch]

OK~ went through this thread ~ the new horse ~ wasn't sure at first ~ but ~ keeps looking better and better and better ~ love n that horse is easy ~ as for the old and unwell ~ me thinks I'd feed em ~ talk to them often as I could and have a backhoe on call ~ but I couldn't put them down ~ Aust Yezu Parin ```