palace of winds

Last Saturday was Vet Day out at the barn, and I spent nearly nine hours there, holding horses for shots and making sure everyone had nametags and freezing my toesies in my new leopard-print rain boots (which are adorable but not, perhaps, appropriate for 20 degree weather; when I left the house I really expected the day would get much warmer). Everett was a trooper for his couple of shots and his blood draw and his intranasal flu vaccine (which involves having a plastic tube shoved up the nose) and, later, his teeth floating.

As a horse’s teeth grow, they can develop sharp points or hooks along their outer edges — particularly for domestic horses, who don’t typically consume the same amount/toughness of roughage as wild horses — so the vet comes in and files those hooks down. (Well, and whatever other dentistry that might need doing, like removing wolf teeth.) For his floating on Saturday, Ev first got a nice shot of sedative to send him off to lalaland. Once he was feelin’ groovy, the vet gave his mouth a rinse with a giant baster of water and the vet tech put the dental-work halter on him — two big metal pieces fit on the top and bottom front teeth, respectively, and then the contraption is pulled open. It locks in place as it’s opened, and — you know, you can do a search if you’re having trouble imagining it, because it’s pseudo-Friday afternoon (market’s closed tomorrow!) and I just can’t muster a better description for you.

So Ev’s strapped into this thing, mouth open, head elevated by dint of a rope slung around the top bar of the open stall door. He has really big chewing teeth — they’re very broad across, with lots of texture to them, and they go very far back in his mouth. It was very cool to see, and the vet had me reach back in there to feel the sharp hooks on their outsides. Slimy! Then he took his — you know, I’m not sure what the correct term for it is; the whole process is called a ‘power float’, so ‘power floater’ seems fitting. It’s got a long shaft with a circular grinding head — maybe the size of a half dollar? I didn’t get a good look — at the end. I’m told the alternate, non-electric, method involves just a big file. Once the vet was done grinding all the hooks down I had another feel, and it was indeed nicely smooth. They lowered his head down, gave him a few rinses, and then I took his tripped-out self down to his stall to rest off the sedation.

We had a really spectacular ride on Monday. We’ve been doing lateral work lately, and it’s really clicking. I had a couple of beautiful, soft canter transitions too. In the last few weeks he’s seemed stronger in his canter work in general — the right lead is really coming along, and when he picks it up wrong on the lunge he’s frequently been correcting with a quick flying change. He’s just getting softer and stronger. I can’t wait to see where this spring takes us.