So lets talk about drooling horses today. Drool can be both good and bad. If you are riding dressage drool is good. It shows that your horse is responding to the bit. White, frothy, and dripping, the more the better! It is not uncommon to see a horse in a grand-prix test with masses of white froth on their chests.
You should also expect to see a certain amount of drool while a horse is eating, even fairly dry foods such as grain or hay. Its when your horse has that frothy "dressage" drool and is standing in the corner of the stall that you have problem.
Black Patch is a fungal disease that affects red clover, the plants develop black lesions on their leaves, which will cause excessive drooling in horses if ingested. Optimum conditions for its growth are rainy days with high humidity. It can be ingested in the pasture or from hay that contains the infected plants. So it is wise to know where your hay is coming from and inspect it closely. Horses will recover quickly once the causative agent is found and removed.
If you have checked your fields and hay and can rule out Black Patch, then it is probably a tooth problem. It may be as simple as a a piece of hay stuck in the gum line or something more serious like an abscessed or infected tooth. Either way, it is probably time to call the vet. They can flush the horse's mouth out to remove an offending object or worst case, put the horse on Sulfamethoxazole (SMZ), or similar antibiotic if they there is an infected tooth.
Just know that horses do drool, but it is up to you to determine a cause!
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