Wood Chewing to Teeth to Head Tossing

:)..the subject kind of goes hand in hand. Let me preface this here by saying that the equine dentist is coming out today but I wanted to see if my theory may be correct.

I noticed the horse was chewing on his buckets..all plastic, he doesn't have anything wood he can get his teeth on in the stall. Now, due to circumstances (stone bruise, coughing of potential paddock mate....) he was only getting turned out about an hour or so a day but even before I bought him he was chewing wood occasionally...just picking at it.

After finally being sound from the stone bruise, and once I got him past his pogo stick tendencies due to way too much energy and just feeling good from his foot not hurting, he has been tossing his head when I ride..and I mean nearly knocking me in the face at times. Most of the time this has started about 15 mins after I ride when I ask for more collection, which is what set the alarm bells off.

In bridling the other day, Monday I think it was, I could feel a sharp point on one of his front teeth and when I brought him in from the paddock yesterday I noticed he was chewing the fence.

I am guessing the wood chewing lead to the pointed tooth I found up front so it goes hand in hand he could have issues further back, but, I was curious as to how a sharp tooth up front would have such an impact on his head tossing considering the bit doesn't act on that area? This is assuming, of course, that this one tooth is the only problem.

Update: Equine tooth doc came out. The sharp tooth up front is actually the result of the horse chipping two teeth. The one that I noticed was sharp the doc indicated was probably chipped close to the pulp, still, she didn't seem to think that was the problem. He wasn't responding to pressure on either tooth and watching him graze he was chomping away with the front incisors as any normal horse would do. Still, just because she was already there I had her put the speculum in and check his mouth. We found sharp edges on both bottom sides and hooks. He also had a few small lacerations in the cheek. After a good floating he was smooth as a foal :)

Will see how he works tomorrow. He is getting Banamine for a few days to help with the possible sensitivity in the front.

He even got pictures of the front teeth taken as she had never seen a "new" chip.

Don't expect any change for a week or so. Those sharp teeth create cheek ulcers and they need a little time to heal. Not a good idea to administer Banamine unless you are positive the horse is experiencing pain.

Given the head tossing and slight lacerations we spotted the Banamine will help for a few days. :) Not sure he will need it for too long as he certainly wasn't having any problems eating his hay or grain tonight post float.

After doing some reading I quit using the Banamine after yesterday's (Saturday) morning dose. The horse did much better and was only tossing his head in the last 10 mins or so after an hour and 15 minute ride. Today (Sunday) he was full of energy (it was colder and windy) with no head tossing at all....I think we are there but the dressage clinic I have tomorrow will definitely be the test.