Hi Susan >>>There is a very important lesson to be learned here: ALWAYS LISTEN TO YOUR HORSE! I did not know what Whisper's problem was, but there is almost ALWAYS a physical reason a horse does not cooperate with you. Horses are not bad on purpose, they are usually bad because they are in pain.
Great you found a good dentist and got to the bottom of what the horses were trying to tell you. It is interesting because when my sister, Linda, starting developing the TTEAM work over 25 years ago the biggest thing she stressed was that when horses misbehaved, were resistant, etc, the reason was pain, fear or fear of pain and that is certainly what I have found over the years. That is why it doesn't make sense to me the concept of upping the pressure when a horse doesn't do what we want. That is the one part I really see missing in most of the NH and other training methods - not really looking for a reason behind behavior. We started having a dentist come out in 1992, before that I tried to do my horses teeth the best I could but really didn't know anything. The first year we had 88 horses done and then continued from there. To me the biggest downfall in dentistry has been the use of power tools as the primary means of floating teeth. The vet I used to use, IMO, was a very good dentist until he started to do all his work with power tools and hanging the horse's head to do them. The vet I use now does basic dentistry but when horses need incisor work and more specialized work she brings in a very well trained lay dentist and neither of them hang horse's heads - they get down on the ground and allow the horse's heads to be free so you don't stress the TMJ. My vet says that more and more people are calling her because she doesn't use power tools for basic floating. Harder on the vet - better for the horses. Robyn
