The Equine dentist that is. Benjamin Brown had an appt last Sunday with the equine dentist. A friend of ours turned us onto the man who was having a clinic at his ranch. I think we paid something like $175-ish to have Patches done a few years ago. This clinic was $75 no matter what he had to do. Ben's teeth were in surprisingly good shape for his age and care level before we got him. Horses teeth continue to grow and are worn down by the grinding motion of chewing grass or hay. Sometimes they can wear unevenly, producing sharp edges, hooks, and such. This can cause pain when the bit is in the mouth, or cause them not to be able to process the food they eat very well and drop weight. I knew Ben wasn't having any of those issues, and I wanted to keep it that way. I also wondered his age. The horse trader we got him from said he was 18, and this was three years ago. I had him for sale last year to try and pay down some bills after my second surgery. A retired veterinarian came out to look at him for her husband, and she thought he was closer to 22 then. Going by the groove in his teeth, Galvayns Groove , as said by The Cowboy Way with pictures, is said to be all the way to the bottom of the tooth it resides in by the age of 20. This isn't totally always accurate though. I know Ben had a complete groove when we got him. The dentist pointed out to us that one set of molars actually gets to the end of it's continuous growth life at about 22-24 before it expires and falls out. You could see that Ben's set were still in there, but they were on the way to expiring. So he's somewhere between 21 and 24. He really is in good condition for a horse that old. Here's him all fit and sweaty after a ride we took before my surgery. He's always going to be a big boned horse.
And a gratuitous shot of me and Apache
Both the boys got their feet trimmed yesterday. It'd been since before Sept 10th the last time they got done. This was looking like the last nice weekend left this fall, so I made sure I got it done before I was out there freezing. We went on a beautiful ride this last Wed. Up by Fairfield above Princess mine. I have a pic or two on my phone, but alas, it's out in the truck dead, and I'm just far too lazy to walk out there and get it right now. Instead here's a few tidbits I found hiding on Scott's computer.
 |
| Mike and Teh Spawn at the lake-wood cutting trip |
 |
| The Spawn, The Boy, Mike- wood cutting trip |
 |
| Galinas summit- wood cutting trip |
 |
| Dirty after a day of hauling wood |
 |
| Flock of geese that landed in the pond out back over the summer |
Apache's turn at the Equine Dentist. We took him to a clinic in Glen's Ferry at the school. People come from all over the world to take the course offered here. Andrea brought Illusion and Minnesota as well. The guys who did Apache came from the UK. I forget where the folks doing Illusion came from. Sota got a guy from Germany. 
