Vikki Fowler - Veterinary Equine Dental Technician

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.

16/06/2026

Have you seen the inside of a horses mouth? It goes a lot further back than most owners think! The last tooth ends about level with the eye.

Most surprising for owners is often the incredible size of the tongue. Just behind where the bit sits the tongue doubles in height. This is genioglossus muscle (grass muscle).

This has a huge impact on bitting and is the reason why I personally hate spade or spoon bits. The size and length of this tongue is also the reason why tongue tying is completely pointless and purely harmful.

Understanding anatomy is so important for all owners, so you can make educated decisions on what equipment you use on your horse.

14/06/2026

Does every horse need their incisors worked on? In my opinion, no.

There is a recent trend going on where people are doing incisor work on every horse. This is not just unnecessary, it can be harmful.

When I am working I always ask myself, "Will this leave the horse better off?", before I do anything. The second question is "Could this do any harm?".

To understand if the horse is better off, we need to understand how the incisors work. When the incisors are in contact, the cheek teeth are not. When the jaw is moved sideways so the cheek teeth are in contact, the incisors are not. This video clearly shows this in a normal horse with normal teeth.

Small corner hooks, small slants, small smiles will not prevent the horse's cheek teeth or TMJ (the jaw joint) from working as normal. Hopefully this is obvious from the video.

Second question, will it cause harm? Incisors are not like cheek teeth. They are far more delicate, prone to fractures from outside forces, prone to overheating and their nerves sit far closer to the chewing surface. So if we work on them, we need to be very sure it's for a good reason and not just because we want our horses to look like they've been to Turkey for dental implants!

The vast majority of severe incisor issues I see are a direct result of cheek teeth pathology. The cheek teeth are far larger, have far more power going through them and are far more likely to impact the incisors than the other way around. Unfortunately the Facebook business page doesn't allow videos and photos on the same post. But if you watch the video through, I have added some incisors that I have corrected. These were all caused by very severe cheek teeth issues, not the other way around. If the cheek teeth issues are caught early, then the incisors will self correct. If the incisors have formed a large enough overgrowths to cause a lock out, then they need help, but will often self correct once the worst of it has been taken down, providing the cheek teeth issues have been resolved.

We must remember that horses do not have infinite amount of tooth like rabbits do. They do continuously erupt, but they have closed roots and so they will eventually run out. When we take the surface of the tooth away, we are shortening its lifespan. We absolutely must have a good reason for doing it.

When I look at incisors that are not normal, I want to find the reason for the imbalance before I do anything. Sometimes the horse has a wry nose (the nose is slightly crooked) which results in a slant. Correcting this is pointless, it will reform. All we are doing is shortening the tooth lifespan. If the cause is the cheek teeth then fix the cheek teeth, make sure the incisors aren't impinging and reassess at the next appointment.

When incisors do need work, it is in their own right. If we are missing an incisor then we must reduce the opposing tooth and do the job of the tooth that is missing. If we have a displaced tooth that doesn't wear correctly as it doesn't line up, we must reduce that tooth to avoid soft tissue damage. If we have a parrot mouth or sow mouth where the teeth do not meet to wear each other down, then we must step in and make this reduction.

What we must never do is reduce incisors to make the cheek teeth meet. Because they shouldn't meet until the jaw is moved sideways to chew!

So how many of the horses I treat do I work on their incisors? Maybe 1 in 20, roughly. And always with great care!!

12/06/2026

Please please needle train your horses.

Every horse is going to need an IV injection at some point in their life. It might be to save their life from colic or it might be sedation every 6 months for their dental exam. What you don't want to do is wait until it's life threatening. The stress involved at that pivotal moment when a horse is fighting and won't allow the injection just isn't necessary.

I am seeing more and more needle shy horses nowadays. I suspect we are doing a lot more investigating and intervention than ever before and one bad experience can cause issues for life. If you can train the horse to stand for an IV injection before it is necessary, then the chances of it going wrong to start with are greatly reduced. You can also retrain a horse that is already needle shy.

This is my 17.2hh warmblood, Adonis. He's not a fan of needles. I mean, who is?!? But I can inject him worry free without anyone holding him or him being tied. Because he is trained. I don't try and hide what I'm doing, I show him the needle, I let him understand what is happening and he willingly stands for me.

This video is a fabulous starting point to explain the process
https://youtu.be/MRAIdnQmzak

I would highly recommend asking your vet to give you a needle and syringe with the needle snapped off the hub. I find this leaves just enough of a point to give them a poke that simulates an injection without actually hurting them. Most vets will happily do this and will show you how to raise the vein and simulate the injection as closely as possible for maximum effect. Once the horse is comfortable with you doing this, ask friends to do the same. When the time comes for the real IV injection, it will be stress free.

Note - I feel I had best pre-empt the Facebook experts that I know will have an opinion on this video. It will also tell me who has made it to the end before offering their opinion 😅
I choose to inject off the needle. Some vets will detach the needle to find the vein, then reattach the syringe to inject. The reason for this is to make sure they are not in the artery. Injecting in the artery can be fatal. However I find this fiddly, it takes longer and you can still end up in the artery as you reattach the syringe. Instead I use a shorter needle, I pause before drawing back as the arterial pressure will result in blood in the syringe without the draw back, I check the colour before depressing the syringe and I intermittently pull back again to make sure it hasn't shifted. There isn't a right or wrong here, it's whatever the professional feels most comfortable doing.
Also worth adding that only vets can inject IV in the UK. I know this isn't the case in other countries.

11/06/2026

I do love this organisation. They are such a passionate and professional group of people 🥰

10/06/2026

The importance of looking closely!! This is a very zoomed in photo. This hook is tiny (blue outline) and at the very back of the mouth, almost hidden by the soft palate. And yet it has sliced open the back of this pony's mouth (red circle). Accessing things like this are a huge part of why I love the motorised equipment I use. This would be so very difficult to remove with a hand rasp whilst avoiding soft tissue damage. With the motorised burr, it took a moment and no tissue damage.

Remember routine dentistry is basic care, not a luxury.

08/06/2026

Every horse needs regular dental work. I hope this is widely known by now. But just in case, I'll repeat it again.

We have domesticated horses. We have changed their head shapes from the wild horses. We have changed their diets, including those that live out grazing, it's mostly on soft grass that is not like their wild diet, and hay is even less natural. We are responsible for their existence and we are responsible for keeping them pain free.

This photos are just a few horses with good mouths, straight teeth, good diets and still they become so sharp that they have lacerated their cheeks due to being overdue their routine dentals. This is super easy to prevent. Once or twice a year dental appointments will stop this happening.

Remember routine dentistry is basic care, not a luxury!

06/06/2026

I thought I would share this slide from one of our lectures today at the BAEDT Congress. This was a talk given by Spillers feeds. As you may have noticed from my page, I am very very keen on making sure horses are given adequate forage/fibre. Not just for their dental health but also their gut health and mental health.

I'd particularly like to draw attention to what "dry matter" is. Recently I have been regularly told a horse is being fed 1.5% of their body weight (BW). But this recommendation is for DRY MATTER. This does not mean before soaking!! Hay is 15% moisture even before soaking. Dry matter is something measured in a laboratory when every little molecule of moisture is pulled out. It is not a real life figure. In real life it is closer to 1.8% BW of hay or 2.4% BW of haylage (haylage has a much higher moisture content).

Something I learnt today is that soaking hay actually reduces the dry matter content and so you need to feed even more of it, more like over 2% BW. Obviously this is weighed BEFORE soaking.

We talk about dry matter because of all this variability in our forages. Dry matter is a way of standardising the requirement. If you are unclear on what the dry matter of your forage is, I would advise reaching out to an independent nutritionalist to help formulate a healthy diet for your horse.

The second point I would raise is that this 1.5% dry matter is about fibre, not calories. As humans we are use to talking about how many calories we should eat. We don't really pay much attention to our fibre intake, even though we should eat over 25g of fibre a day ourselves. For horses, fibre is the important figure. If we drop below this 1.5% BW dry matter, the horse's gut is not getting enough fibre to function properly. This can leave them susceptible to things like stomach ulcers and colic. We can reduce their calories as much as possible but we must be very very careful to never drop below this 1.5% BW dry matter. Effective ways of reducing the calories in their forage are things like soaking hay, feeding unfertilised hay, and feeding good quality straw (replacing up to 50% of their hay).

When talking about geriatric equines with poor teeth that cannot eat hay, haylage or straw, we must still obey this 1.5% BW dry matter. This is a lot more food than most owners think. For example 24 x Stubb scoops of happy hoof a day!!