Lessons Learned from a Dentist

I have been a horse owner for over 35 years and I would like to think know more than your average Joe about my equine friends.  So I am always excited to find out something new about them. 

An equine dentist at work

Horses teeth grow constantly and can grow sharp points on their molars which need to be filed down in a process called "floating".  Yesterday I had the equine dentist out to "float" my boys teeth.  He also looked at their incisors, said they both had a very good bite and that they must get regular turnout on pasture.  What I never realized, but if you think about it it should be common sense, is that their incisors grow at the same rate.  Grabbing and ripping out grass is how they wear them down.  My horses have always had access to pasture so it never dawned on me that horses on a hay/pellet diet don't use they incisors as much and often have trouble.

Yet another reason for keeping horses as natural as possible!

A Horse of a Different Color

I am always amazed at the variety of colors in horses.  They can be a virtual rainbow of shades here are just a few:

Black- A uniform jet black color on the body mane and tail.

Black

Dark Bay- A dark seal brown, almost black, body color, mane and tail, with lighter brown hair on the muzzle, ear tips, around the eyes and on the flank.

Dark Bay

Bay or "Blood Bay"- A reddish brown body color with black mane and tail and black points (black on all the legs from the knee and the hock down, black muzzle and ear tips).

Bay

Chestnut or Sorrel - Brown or red hair on all parts of the body, mane and tail.  "Sorrel" refers to a lighter brown color and "Chestnut" is a darker brown.  A very dark chestnut horse is called a "Liver Chestnut".

Chestnut

Grullo/Buckskin- These horses have the same black mane, tail and points as the bay and a have pronounced dark dorsal stripe running from the withers to the dock of the tail.  Grullos have a gray body color, Buckskins have a light yellow body color. 

Grullo

Buckskin

Red Dun- Similar to Grullo and Buckskin but have a darker yellow to almost chestnut body color and mane, tail and points are more of a red chestnut color rather than black.

Red Dun

Palomino-A yellow body color with a light, sometimes even white, mane and tail.

Palomino

Gray- Grays have dark gray to almost black skin with white to dark gray hair on the body and a mane and tail to match.  Most "white" horses you see are really grays.  Their dark skin is most noticeable around the eyes and muzzle.  When they are wet it is very easy to see the darker skin through the lighter coat color.  Many grays are born with dark hair and lighten as the get older.

Gray Variations

White- They horses have white hair all over their body, mane and tail, pink skin, and usually blue, sometimes brown, eyes. 

White