Saddlebred Tossing His Head

Case two is about a 10 year old American Saddlebred gelding.

Beginning  about a year ago, this horse started being fussy in the show ring. With more frequency he was tilting his head, or tossing up and down after one or two rounds. 

He had been floated every six to eight months, the last time about 3 months previous. 

Examination showed some sharp points on the last two upper and lower cheek teeth. Mildly exaggerated transverse ridging was present on several molars. The most significant abnormality was excessive height on the upper fourth and fifth cheek teeth. These teeth were 3 mm longer than the third and sixth cheek teeth.

Correction involved shortening the exaggerated ridging and shortening the fourth and fifth upper cheek teeth to the height of the rest of the cheek teeth.  

The dentistry was done on Thursday and he was shown on Saturday night. I was able to watch the class and he exhibited a slight head toss a couple of times during the class.

Talking with the owner afterwards, she said he was much more comfortable while being ridden and the head tossing was greatly reduced.

I treated this horse on June 1 and since that time he has been shown in six more shows. The head tossing completely disappeared by the second show.