Welcome to ‘William Cooper’ – Equine Dentistry

William is a Member of the ‘British Association of Equine Dental Technicians’ and is Examined and Approved by ‘The British Equine Veterinary Association’ and ‘The British Veterinary Dental Association’.

Why equine dentistry? For generations we have been breeding horses to go faster and longer with racing, with more pleasing features (think ‘dishy headed’ Arabs, Welsh A’s etc) for the show world, to jump higher and move with better fluency for dressage and eventing etc. This has effected the conformation of the head and therefore the teeth in horses, and distinguishes the domestic horse from its wild cousins by the absence of natural selection, i.e., in short, bad toothed horse doesn’t eating, then dies and is not able to pass on its faults to potential offspring.

Whether a horse will have good teeth or not won’t be considered when modifying a breed for the purpose intended my its owner. Couple this with the absence, in most cases of sixteen to twenty hours a day grazing, (typical for the wild horse) means the modern horse simply cannot get enough wear on its teeth, plus compound feeds and hay etc. take nearly no effort to masticate compared to the tough high silicate diet for which equine molars were originally intended, so a lot less of the tooth’s surface will be used, creating a thicker sharper cusp than ‘normal’, more likely to irritate and cause ulcers.

Not so long ago 18-22 was considered an old horse and past it, normally due to lack of dental care, these days we regularly see horses in to their 40′s and not massively uncommon for them to hit 50, a recent ‘horse and hound’ column by a prominent vet highlighted the significance of equine dentistry in this new trend.

And perhaps most importantly, the function of most horses is the ability for it to perform for its rider, be it round Burghley or round the block! If every horse was seen at least once per year, the horse would be happier and more comfortable and owner would find more a fulfilling and possibly more fruitful enjoyment of their equitation, safe in the knowledge that she/he is doing the utmost for the welfare of their mount!