Don't Look A Gift Horse in the Mouth...

Tommy Boy got his teeth done today. Dr. Bender of Creekside Veterinary Services was out late morning to do the honors. We were told his teeth hadn't been done in 4 - 5 yrs., and they were pretty sharp.







Couple of other noteworthy suppositions:

Judging by his teeth, he is more likely 20 yrs. old. Not an exact science, but fairly close.


Also, he may have suffered a broken lower jaw a some point in his life. The gap between his lower canine teeth and third incisors was much larger on the right side; it was also uneven side-to-side.

I'm thinkin' since he was a jumper, well, maybe he fell on his jaw!!

Not so! Could have been from cribbing and pulling back quickly from being startled (Has anyone ever had a horse break his jaw from cribbing?); or maybe he got kicked in the jaw by another horse. Anyhow, you can see from the photograph of his lower jaw how asymmetrical it is and I guess that's pretty atypical.