Prevost Ranch and Gardens

It is bittersweet that we are bidding farewell to our onsite lesson provider, Chaparral Ranch (aka Chaparral Bay Area Horseback Riding ). After two years they are refocusing on their new endeavour at Golden Gate Park. They still provide lessons and trail rides in Milpitas at Ed Levin Park and in Woodside at Folgers Stable. Possibly, they will return in the future but will be taking this winter off from our ranch. Join us in wishing them good luck with this new relaunch of riding at Golden Gate Park.

This is why we vaccinate.

Here is a recent case that is greatly impacted by a lack of education within the dental practitioners that exist in many parts of the country. This may be a lo...ng post, so bear with me. This 6-year old QH mare exhibited a lack of ability to turn towards her right. When working rollbacks, she could properly load her hip on the left side and turn over herself but was unable to load her hip on the right side. She also pointed her nose outward and was unable to flex her head to the right. She was taken to a vet clinic to diagnose a potential lameness. Various tests were performed and it was determined that she had soreness in the hind-right quarter but it was unclear exactly where. They also discovered that she had a protuberant molar on her right side. Dental work was performed and the trainer was told that the long tooth could not be reduced completely because of a risk of damaging that tooth. They were to return to the clinic to further reduce the tooth in 4 months, but were instructed to ride and use her because the tooth shouldn't interfere with her ability to perform. The first picture is 4 months after the original work and the mare was still exhibiting the "lameness" in her hind right, but the exact cause of the lameness remained a mystery and she was given rest from riding. At this point, I could go into the physics of how the jaw works and how this tooth interferes with the biomechanics of movement of, not only the jaw, but the entire horse. I'll spare the readers and just suffice to say that this tooth was still causing problems to the mare after the initial dental work because it was not properly treated. Such discomfort could have been avoided had the original practitioner known what they were looking at and how to properly care for this problem. The mare was brought to me where I reduced the protuberant tooth to the level it needed to be and I also fixed several other SECONDARY problems that had developed as a result of that long tooth existing for several years. The secondary problems were overlooked by the original practitioner. I also noted that all of the facial muscles on her right side were atrophied (from lack of use) while all the muscles on her left side were enlarged (from overuse). She also had an old bone injury on the bottom of her lower right jaw that probably was the initial cause of this problem. None of which had been noted by anyone who had previously seen the horse. Conclusion: After properly balancing the mouth and reducing that protuberant molar, the facial muscles were still too tight to manually push the jaw to the right but the potential for movement toward the right was restored. A few days later the client reported that she still had some oral discomfort with the bit BUT she was now turning to the right and her "lameness" became less of an obstacle. Moral of the story: regardless of who is working on your horse's teeth (veterinarian or a non-vet practitioner), if they have not received a proper dental education, they could very easily be doing your horse a disservice. The total cost of treatment for this dental problem was double what was necessary plus she lost time from being trained only because the original dental practitioner lacked some education with these common dental problems. The lameness was lijrky enhanced due to an inability to move the jaw in that direction which impeded her body to turn. Her body was bracing for the pain associated with that movement and it manifested as a lameness. I admit that while I am not the cheapest dental practitioner around, many times you are money ahead to treat the problem correctly the first time than have to seek out a SECOND professional to finally fix it! Also, if there’s an unclear problem with with your horse, usually it’s best to start at the nose and work your way back.

We went to this show several years ago with our good friends. A great learning experience.

The write up/documentation is well worth the read.