Vikki Fowler - Veterinary Equine Dental Technician

30/08/2026

This is a 15 year old mare that a client inherited from her father. She's never had her teeth done. She has lived semi-feral, on moorland all her life and she has decent teeth. No major abnormalities. And yet she has ended up in this state.

Every horse, every year needs a routine dental. Keeping a horse "naturally" will not avoid this necessity. Humans have interfered with horses too much for too many centuries, indeed millennia, for them to be able to live wild. Nature is not rainbows and roses, it's cruel, our domesticated horses would suffer and die a painful early death in the wild. We have a responsibility to care for those we own.

Routine dentistry is basic care, not a luxury.

27/08/2026

Big hooks on a very little pony! This chap is 27 years old, and has never had his teeth done. Apart from the very large hooks at the front and back, I was surprised to find his teeth in pretty decent condition. With the hooks being very tall but very narrow, I managed full reduction pretty easily. My favourite new toy, the Equilight microdisc made the 11 hooks a doddle 😁

I'm having a disagreement with my camera flash of late so please excuse the poor lighting in the photos. Trying to get photos in such a tiny mouth is tricky as it is 😅

I'll have to wait for the overworn areas to grow back for it to look perfect but I'm very pleased with how much of the hooks I could safely take and he'll be a lot more comfortable now.

Remember, routine dentistry is basic care, not a luxury!

21/08/2026

The (grown up) babies watching mum being done before taking their turn. I'm use to humans looking over my shoulder but these two were hilarious! They behaved impeccably when their turn came 🥰

20/08/2026

Agreed!! One of the worst bits for oral trauma that I see.

06/08/2026

Absolutely loving my new microdisc by Equilight. Blueberry got to be the first mini to give it a spin (literally 😅) and wow it makes life easier! I've been on the list for this for months, I saw a prototype at the BAEDT congress and was like... MUST HAVE! ... I've been impatiently waiting ever since. Every tricky 11 hook or tiny mouth I've seen I've been longing for it. Pleased to say it's as good as I hoped!

I got married last week (hence the pretty nails which I'm dying to take off!) and I can honestly say I've been more excited about this disc arriving 🤣 In fairness we've been together 12 years whereas this disc is brand new to me 🤷🏼‍♀️ and I've been wishing for it for maybe 14 years??

Having the right equipment is sooo important to being able to do a good job.

17/07/2026

Fascinating case study here.

Although I do not know the cause of this injury in this horse, this type of injury is a high risk when tongue manipulation is used by "body workers".

The hyoid apparatus is very delicate. Pulling the tongue or holding the tongue and allowing the horse to pull risks severe injury. This has become more "fashionable" of late but please do not allow anybody pull your horse's tongue! Or even hold it and let the horse pull.

The hyoid apparatus does not need resetting or adjusting, this is smoke and mirrors. It looks impressive but only causes harm, no benefit.

10/07/2026

How many times do we see this!! I'd say I see this set up daily on social media.

Dutch gags should have a chin strap to prevent over rotation which causes extensive oral damage.

Ideally they should be ridden in with 2 reins.

Never use a martingale with a Dutch gag unless it's on the snaffle ring.

When we know better, we must do better!

🫨 did you know this?
I didn't 10 years ago!
📷These are photos of myself and my horse Cinderella! Back when I was young and didn't know any better. 1 rein, no curb strap 🙈🙈
We've all done it but now we can learn and know better!

🤔Did you know that you're not supposed to use a martingale with a gag bit?!

🐴That includes bevels, wilkies, universals, 2 ring 3 ring 4 ring and true gag bits.
😳You're only supposed to use them on the snaffle rein. So if you have 2 reins thats okay - but only on the snaffle rein.

❌️And NEVER a standing martingale!

🌞Here is why...

✨️The purpose of a running martingale is to bring the head down from beyond the angle of control. If the head lifts so high it adds pressure to the rein and bit which translates into poll pressure to bring the head down. This pressure releases once the head is back down.
A standing martingale uses nose pressure by attaching to the back of the noseband do bring the head down. 👇👇

Whats the mechanics of a gag bit?
- to lift the head! 👆

👆So when you use your rein you ask for the head to lift.
👆The horse responds by lifting the head
👇👆👆The martingale acts on the rein, asking what you think is "bring your head down". Well, it doesn't. If you are using the rein on the leverage options then the martingale will be asking for more of the lift when it comes into action.
👆👆👆So your horse responds by lifting its head more.

👆👆👆👆👆Then you now get out of control because your horses head is so high it can't go forwards properly. You start to panic, use the rein more. Asking for yet more of that lift.

👆👇👆👇... see the conflict and cycle you're about to get into?

🫤A gag bit and a martingale are conflicting pieces of equipment and shouldn't be used together unless you use 2 reins (which you should be).

26/06/2026

This is a very interesting case I saw recently. Not so much teeth related, but I did find this on a routine exam. I'm sharing his story in case it helps someone else that comes across a similar issue.

Not usually my patient, but I took him over as I already treated the clients other horse. This older chap had been seen every 6 months by a qualified EDT and his teeth were lovely and routine, as you would expect. Much to my surprise however, I opened the mouth to find these horrific injuries. Not caused by the teeth.

He had shown absolutely no signs of pain. Now I know that seems hard to believe, but I've known this client a very long time. If the horses have even the slightest thing wrong with them, they know and they're on the phone to the vet or dentist etc. They are incredibly fastidious. This was just a fortuitously timely routine dental.

We have many ideas on what could have caused the injuries, a stick or similar stuck across the back of the mouth seems most likely. Initially I rounded the teeth a bit more than I normally would to try and speed healing. The owner also started regularly flushing his mouth out. I referred him to his vets for a full work up to make sure there were no other more sinister causes going on. The vets agreed with my preliminary diagnosis of trauma. I revisited 2 weeks later and much to our dismay, the injuries were no better, if not slightly worse!!

So I asked around colleagues and vet friends to see if anyone had come across something similar. Sam at Apex Equine Dental Surgery Ltd came back to me and had indeed seen something similar. Her case had a different cause but she had found that the wounds didn't heal until they took the horse off hay, haylage and chaff. Her theory was that the forage balls get caught in the wounds and the spikiness of the food worsens the damage.

So on her advice we took him off all hay/haylage/chaff. He went on to a mash only diet with some grass. Due to other concerns, he couldn't have too much turnout. We had a brief episode with colic which meant we had to change the diet to make sure he was getting enough fibre (he was rather fussy about the mash!). It took a lot of dedication from the owner and a helping hand from many other liveries on the yard to spread his feeds out. Luckily as spring came on and then summer, he could have more time in the field with a muzzle to help keep the fibre going through his system. The owner still continued flushing his mouth out too. I revisited every 2 weeks to assess his progress.

It took a total of 16 weeks from first diagnosis for these wounds to heal. One side had a large flap which was particularly slow to heal. But finally he has the all clear to go back on his hay. The owner is very slowly introducing soaked hay and he is a very happy pony again.