My daughter called me yesterday afternoon and wanted me to help her take Madasan’s horses over to visit their dentist. He was doing the horses over at a friend’s barn so away we went. I grabbed my book and phone because I thought this would be an uninteresting afternoon. WRONG!
When we arrived the equine dentist, John, was going at it. He was talking a mile a minute, shirt soaked with sweat and horse saliva up to his elbow. He had this long, archaic looking tool and was filing the teeth of a very large horse that would prefer that his arm not be in his mouth. The horse’s tongue was hanging out because he had been given a large shot of fast acting medication that made him let this guy do his job.
While filing away, John was telling these fabulous stories. Now I enjoy a good story but let me tell you this fellow had stories. He had a MSE in counseling, a degree in Criminology, ran a FAST mile, great ball player, broke neck and messed up his chances of playing in NFL, had written two books and is planning to write another book. He had been a counselor for thirteen years and said, “I decided I couldn’t fix people so I started fixing horses.”
With all of this information he was also instructing the horse owners on the importance of equine dentistry and how important it was to the health of the horse. He said that horses that need attention to their mouth exhibit a wide range of behaviors from dropping grain while chewing to acting up while being ridden. He said that problems that arise in the horse’s mouth can create problems for the rider that could be catastrophic.
At the end of each procedure he had Terry, Rachel and Madasan reach back in the horse’s mouth and feel how it is supposed to feel. That looked like a lot of fun. I almost volunteered to join in this experience but decided that I could live without knowing.
I would have taken my camera along if I had known it was going to be such an experience. I did get some pictures from the web to make this experience more memorable. (ROTFL)
This is not John but it shows some of the tools used.
1 comment:
I knew your account would tell me more than Terry did. Sounds like he really had some tales to tell. Glad it made the blog. I read it to Terry and he did lots of chuckling.
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