A Visit From The Dentist

I have decided enough is enough! Since today will be my (Natalie) last day of tafe, and since I don't have any work or anything else to do, Ive decided I will update!

So yesterday entailed Gracie's first visit from the vet. We noticed that she had been dribbling quite a bit over the weekend so decided she was ready for her first dental appointment. Since it had been 3 years (yes Lisa, 3 years!) since Beckam's last visit we decided both should be done to get it all over with. (EDIT: It has been one and a half years, Natalie. I had his teeth done by another dentist last time).

I thought about who should go first, the easy one or the hard one. Lisa told me that Beckham wouldn't need sedating and that he will behave, pfft. So anyway I decided he should go first, that way if he behaved Grace would see it wouldn't be too bad for her.

Gary (the vet/dentist), is a really nice guy, he is from Hawksbury Equine Veterinary Centre, who deal with all our horsey problems, and I don't know how he does it but he has so much patience when it comes to arrogant horses who have been sedated 3 times and are still being pains in the backside. Beckam was a pig, he had to be jabbed 3 times, and still put up a fight, he stood with his legs straddled to balance and his head in a huge halter thing that hung from to roof to hold his head. He thrashed around, he moved forward, he moved backwards, sideways and managed to put his head in a position that only a horse with a broken neck could be capable of.

He ended up having a gap between two of his back teeth, which resulted in the tooth that sat underneath the gap in growing higher then the others which resulted in what they call a wave mouth.

So next came Grace, she had been sedated before we started on Beckham and then again when Gary was about to start. She was surprisingly REALLY good for the vet. She didn't complain about anything, not even the electric float drill. The Only problem we had was a fly on her hind leg, she hates flies, and since so much was going on around her head she completely freaked out about the fly and started kicking out and did a little jump/rear (she is good at that).

Grace ended up having 4 wolf teeth out, apparently that's the first time Gary had seen 4 wolf teeth, he said he has seen 3 but never in his whole career has he seen 4 wolf teeth. She was sedated 3 times, one of them for pulling her teeth and she had also been given a dose of Bute.

So overall She behaved excellently and Beckam was a pig, which is surprising since I though it would have ended up the other way around.

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It has been about 3 months since we first got Grace, so I decided to rank her form 1 to 10 (10 being the best) in how well she has improved.


Halter Breaking - 8, has a tiff every now and then about taking the halter off or putting it on but other than that shes an angel.

Leading - 6.5, has personal bubble issues, as in she doesn't realise that she cant be in our space when leading, so she leans right in and stays close, which is a security issue with her she gets close when shes afraid.

Tie Up - 7.5, haven't had any issues so far but she will still try to back up a bit when shes uncomfortable.

Grooming - 9, hasn't got an issue in the world with touching her all over anymore, you can chuck the lead around her and let it slap her and she wont budge, the only issue is balance when it comes to picking up her feet, she needs to prepare herself before you pick up the hind ones.

Wash bay - 8, for the first time the other day I was able to tie her up in the wash bay, hose her all over and scrub her clean. She did really well!

Overall her main issue at the moment is that she needs to focus on more than one thing. She is the kind of horse who will focus on what your doing, grooming or whatever, and if something else goes on like a big bang or something she will freak out a bit.

Sorry!

Our internet at home hasnt been working for about month now so when its back on there will be an extra large post on Gracies progress, and believe me there is alot of it!!

Stay tunned!

Nat