I've had EQ dentists and vets work on my minis. One "dentist" may have known what he was doing but he used a power float and my horses were absoluetly crazy by the time he was done. My 20 year old gelding tried to rear and strike at him not once but 3 times. My filly was scared to death and didn't even want to be caught by the time we got to her.
I've had vets do them. Once by just pulling the tongue to the side but duh - she popped out a cap when she went into "take down the points" and decided that she was done. Another vet tranked the horse; pulled his head in the air via a pulley on the "jaw cracker"; and all she did was file a few points.
The one vet that actually seemed to know what she was doing cost me a fortune (I think in the vicinity of $200) because she had to trank and have two assitants, one to hold the horse's head up because those jaw things weigh A LOT and another to hand her the instruments. She actually popped caps and told me everything she was doing. But I sure paid for it and we had to wait until he revived from the trank to go home. This vet is over 50 miles away. Can you imagine going there with all the horses?? (Ok, so I only have 3)
On the other hand, there's Carl. He came around at Nationals and I was having trouble my first year with my horse. He looked and told me that a tooth was broken. It was a baby tooth. So Carl came back; used someone else's big halter as mine fit too tightly; pulled the broken tooth and filed off the hooks and points. All without sedation. And my stallion never once offered to give him any trouble. In fact he seemed relieved to get his mouth "fixed". Carl has "magic" fingers - I swear!
I've had vets do them. Once by just pulling the tongue to the side but duh - she popped out a cap when she went into "take down the points" and decided that she was done. Another vet tranked the horse; pulled his head in the air via a pulley on the "jaw cracker"; and all she did was file a few points.
The one vet that actually seemed to know what she was doing cost me a fortune (I think in the vicinity of $200) because she had to trank and have two assitants, one to hold the horse's head up because those jaw things weigh A LOT and another to hand her the instruments. She actually popped caps and told me everything she was doing. But I sure paid for it and we had to wait until he revived from the trank to go home. This vet is over 50 miles away. Can you imagine going there with all the horses?? (Ok, so I only have 3)
On the other hand, there's Carl. He came around at Nationals and I was having trouble my first year with my horse. He looked and told me that a tooth was broken. It was a baby tooth. So Carl came back; used someone else's big halter as mine fit too tightly; pulled the broken tooth and filed off the hooks and points. All without sedation. And my stallion never once offered to give him any trouble. In fact he seemed relieved to get his mouth "fixed". Carl has "magic" fingers - I swear!
