What We Do
For 23 years I have been PROPERLY floating horses teeth without sedation. Prior to that I trained Running Quarter Horses and was also a Farrier. I have been dealing with horses one on one for over 30 years. In 2010, my daughter Shannon started training with me. She starts most all the horses by doing the first half of the procedure. I then take over and finish that horse while she moves on to the next horse. We work together so each horse takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes.
Our approach to Floating without sedation is to allow the horse to be frightened, allow them to move and not disipline them for their fear. We move with them, within a stall until they realize that we aren't going to hurt them but we are also not going away. Most horses will have a number of pantic attacks, but here again if we don't disipline them they will settle down and we can countinue. Floating a horse without sedation the for first time is much like trimming or shoeing the first time, most won't stand still but with time and patience they learn to accept it. Most any horse with normal ground manners can be Floated without sedation. We do over 2000 horses in a normal year. We recommend Floating once a year. If done properly, that is adequate for most horses. Their teeth will just be forming an edge at the end of a year and then Floating will just be maintenance.
