Prairie Schooner Equine Services
2040 South Cocagne Road E4V 1W2 Notre Dame, NB, Canada

Welcome to 2021, I hope everyone had a restful holiday sharing time with those closest to you and maybe discovered some of the great things about the province in which we live. I have often said that we should all take a lesson from the cat sleeping on our sofa who has no desire to pack bags, catch flights, or meet deadlines. Our cats response would be Send me a post card, Maybe I’ll read it next time I have to go to the litter box. But enough of that, time to go back t...o school, just don’t disturb the cat as you adjust your screen . When we left off, our young horse had just shed its Premolar at the #6 position and the #9 had come in. Now, 5 to 6 months later, it is shedding it’s second Premolar the #7 and is cutting it’s second molar the # 10. This horse will be about 2 1/2 years old and depending on the discipline may be starting ground work or, for race horses, starting that make or break year. This is when we often have discussions with owners about Caps which are the remnants of the premolar ( Baby tooth ) covering the erupting permanent tooth. Through out this however it is important not to loose focus on that potential problem at the #8 and #9. My next post will deal with just that issue and I hope I can do it in a brief and concise manner. Spoiler alert !!! The #9 is now 1 1/2 years old and it is next to the last Premolar (Baby tooth ) which is yet to be shed.

Over the next 12 months or so (age of 1 1/2 years to 2 + years) this young horse is going to start to loose its Baby teeth. The incisors are often noticed by owners but what many don’t realize is that their young horse is also loosing Baby molars ( premolars). The first to go will be the #6 in each arcade, and often at the same time they will be cutting their first True molar the #9. The shedding Premolars are often referred to as Caps. So now we have a horse shedding a Cap at the #6 position with a new tooth coming in under it and cutting the gums with a new molar at the #9 position

I have been struggling with how to proceed on our attempt to explain the development of a Wave. I decided that too much detail was only going to create a lot more questions which are difficult to address in this on line setting. So I am not going to risk loosing interest by listing all the expected ages for the loss of baby teeth and the eruptions of permanent teeth. We will start with the photo on this post which is obviously a mature adult, but for today I have cove...red a few teeth and we will pretend that it it is a young horse. I hope you all remember how to Number teeth ... top left maxilla = 200’s, and first cheek tooth (molar) is the #6, so we hav 206, 207, 208. What I have left exposed are the molars that would be in a horse 6 to 12 months old. If you refer back to one of the earlier post you will see that these first 3 cheek teeth are referred to as Premolars. So if it helps you can consider these teeth as Baby Teeth and like all mammals, these teeth will be shed and replaced by permanent teeth as the horse matures. See more

Beautiful fall day at the barn. How many places have you worked where your clients set you up with an office at the job site and then serve everyone Chicken soup for dinner. ( my mask / shield is on the table, had just removed it to eat dinner)

A quick point of clarification on the last post, the drawing shows the left side of the horse’s face so we see the left maxilla (200 arcade) and the left mandible (300 arcade). I had asked everyone to try and number the K9s for these jaws which would have been 204 and 304. The confusion arose due to the label on the drawing where one of the arrows from the word Canine actually points to a tooth in the bottom Right mandible, the # 404. I hope this helps.

So no one asked me to stop, thank you for the positive comments. The next step however requires that we go back to school for Equine dentistry 101 (who wishes they hadn’t encouraged me now ). Every tooth in the horse is given an identifying number that has 3 digits. The first number is to identify the jaw 1 = Rt Maxilla ( upper right jaw) 2 = Left Maxilla ( upper left jaw) ... 3 = Left Mandible ( lower left jaw) 4 = Rt Mandible ( lower Rt jaw) The second number indicates the position in the jaw. So imagine lifting your horse’s upper lip and looking straight on. Now look for the centre, you will see the symmetry, and you will be able to count 3 teeth to your right and 3 to your left. Now comes the part where you will want to shoot me ... your right is the horse’s left, and your left is the horse’s right. So all the teeth you see on your left belong to jaw # 1 and all the teeth on your right belong to jaw # 2. That means from the centre line the first tooth to the left is 101 (1 = Rt maxilla, 01 = first tooth, 1 + 01 = 101) And the first tooth to the Right is 201 Everyone needs to be able to understand this for me to be able to continue explaining the development of the wave since it always starts at tooth # 08 or 09 of one jaw or another. To help I have included another well labeled photo, it shows jaws # 2 (lt maxilla) & 3 (lt mandible). As practice your should be able to identify the Canines as 204 and 304. If this is not clear please send me a comment and I will try to explain it from another angle. I recently resigned from a local college but I find myself still wanting to teach. So don’t be afraid to say this doesn’t make sense, I am very used to students asking me to try another approach.

So here is the photo of a 3 year old that, without a dental, would develop a wave. In the photo you see an obvious tooth looking like a square wall half way back in the photo. This is actually the 4th cheek tooth, # 209. From the front you can easily see the first cheek tooth # 206 ( or the first Premolar, I will explain that later), then the second tooth # 207, and if you look close there is a new tooth just coming in, # 208 in front of the big square wall of 209, The beginning of The Wave

I am often asked What is the most common abnormality I see in horse’s mouths ? Well after over 4000 procedures I would say that the Wave mouth is definitely in the Top 10. This is a result of how and when the permanent teeth erupt during the first 5 years of their life. It is easily corrected in the 3 to 5 year old, but if let go it can lead to irreparable damage that can reduce their ability to extract nutrients from their feed, affect performance, and actually shorten the horses life. So what is the Wave? I will start with a drawing to illustrate along with a photo of a three year old we did recently that inspired me to try and explain condition. Hopefully I won’t discourage anyone from continuing to view this page, so please let me know if this is not what you want to see popping up on your screen.

My tip for the day, if you file your own saws, get good lighting. I just installed this light over my filing bench and I love it

Dental images with the new system

Super Excited to show the latest addition to our equipment at Prairie Schooner Equine Services. This is the newest technology for portable equine radiology (as was my truck 35 years and 973,000 km ago, that is not a typo, there is nearly a million km on the old Land Cruiser) So if this equipment serves me as well it should be my last investment in Radiology. It means that now we can take and view our images instantly allowing diagnoses, treatment plan, and in many cases the final treatment to be completed in one visit. It will save everyone time and allow me to also respond to request for lameness exams again.

Here is one of the nicest horses I have come across in a long time. You know what is really amazing, not how shiny his coat is, not how how beautifully he is moving, not the light contact to the riders open hand. No ... the most amazing thing is that the combined weight of horse and rider is under 300 pounds ! ! That’s right , this is a mini and one of the nicest ones I have had the pleasure to work on.

A lot of clients have asked what do in my spare time. Well I paid for most of my education working in the woods and I still enjoy managing my property cutting trees when necessary

Another fun day on the dental trail and a great example of how important it is to deal with the incisors. Molar abnormalities and cheek pathology are what most owners think of when requesting dental work for their horses, however incisor issues can create and aggravate molar problems. Check out the before and after in these photos. With a level bite this horse can now chew side to side and yield more comfortably to the bit.

On the lighter side, because once my son told me Dad, you have to put something besides gross pictures of teeth in you site if you want people to visit it. Check out this gentle giant who lives right here in N.B.

Question - So what do you do when presented with a horse who has an incisor fractured below the gum line resulting in displacement of the affected tooth and periodontal disease of the adjacent tooth??? Answer - Extract them both !

As New Brunswick contemplates slowly relaxing the restrictions we are venturing back into the barns. At present we are asking that only the barn owner be present and horse owners be available remotely (via phone) if necessary. So today we did a few horses that have been waiting too long.

Just returned from a great learning experience at the veterinary college in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. The speaker was Dr. Steve O’Grady who also happens to be a certified farrier. The horse’s foot was obviously the focus of the conference but his desire was for veterinarians and farriers to work together. The group photo shows all the participants from N.B and N.S. , can you spot your farrier or vet .

The K9 teeth of male horses often accumulates mineralized Tartar but this is perhaps the largest amount I have seen in all my years.

An 8 second bronco ride is no sweat for Cowboy Santa! Merry Christmas from Prairie Schooner.

Another beautiful Fall, hope you all have your hay in the loft (or hay shelter) and all your horses teeth ready to do a winter of extracting nutrients form the feed they are offered.

My own entry to the wine glass challenge, my house, my homemade wine, and my son playing my favourite guitar solo.

Another interesting way to look at horses