Adventures of a working student + traveller: Dentist day

The equine dentist came today.

First up was Bracken, who needed a little touch up to his front teeth and a couple of hooks on his molars corrected.

Gruella was next. He also needed very little work, though got lightly sedated so he didn't fight with the gag. He also had some small hooks on his back teeth and a slight asymmetry between the left and right chewing teeth.

Chico was checked but the dentist said he didn't need to do anything this time. His bite was good, the angles on his teeth were good, he didn't have any hooks to deal with.

It was about the same for Fonteyn. She had extensive work done last year after she arrived with Peggy. All of her teeth angles were incorrect (and none of them matched the rest, either) and her top front teeth were too sloped forward which meant a hook had developed on the front edge. This year, she has worn her teeth evenly, her bite is good, her angles are good, she doesn't have any hooks. The only thing the dentist commented on was the tightness in her poll, between the back edge of the mandible, the atlas and the temporal bone (sort of running along, beneath the vertebrae). There was a rope-like muscle tightness/knot, which will be contributing to her not being freely able to turn her head from side to side. He suggested some gentle exercises and massage before she is ridden. It also explains why she is so much better after CR exercises like elephant's trunk, trace the arc, and any equal and opposing stretches involving the head and neck (even the very first exercise, cheek press).

Finally, it was Sully's turn. The dentist was quite surprised as Sully's age according to me (12), as his teeth looked much older (15+). In the past, Sully has lost one of his front teeth. He will also have had extensive (perhaps overly so) work done on his teeth, which contributes to the teeth appearing older than the horse is supposed to be. As such, the dentist didn't want to do very much work, but he did have some minor corrections to make to the front teeth (especially to the bottom tooth below the missing top tooth, as there is no opposing pressure so the bottom tooth keeps erupting but does not get worn - it can grow to a large hook if not kept in line with dentistry) and the right molars, which were developing a hook on the cheek side. Sully was lightly sedated as the dentist wanted to give him a positive experience and neither of us knew what he would think of the rasping or the gag. After some initial moving around, Sully settled and stood perfectly still with his head nice and low.

I hung around until Sully was a little brighter before turning all the horses out into the field.

After lunch and catching up on emails, I made pastry for the blackberries I picked yesterday. I am somewhat hesitant about pastry as I haven't made it many times before AND I was using a gluten-free flour mix (which I have never done before). It was too wet for my liking after mixing, so I threw it back in the fridge to rest for half an hour which seems to have solved that problem. Meanwhile the blackberries look positively amazing. They are macerating in a mixture of sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and cornflour (to help thicken the juice when the pie is cooked).

For dinner I cooked the last piece of steak (it did four different meals), with some lightly fried slices of zucchini, served with a mix of some rice, about 1/3 of a cob of corn (cut off), some fresh herbs (thyme, chives and something that must be marjoram or similar) and some cottage cheese. It was really yummy!

Here's dinner. I took a pic of the corn/herbs/cottage cheese mixture by itself as it looked so pretty in the plate.

Here is the pie, as I made it. I didn't plan to make both pies today (just roll out the pastry and leave the second shell chilling for later) but the batch of blackberries I'd mixed up was way too much for the first pie alone... I should have planned to see what half looked like, but didn't, so one is FULL of fruit and the other has a scant amount. I am sure they will taste delicious, regardless!

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