Looking into a horse, an I like all aspects about him, the only problem is he has no front teeth. They got kicked out when he was a yearling. He is a healthy weight and doesn't look like it's caused any issues with his body condition. The seller says he can eat hay perfectly fine and can eat grass if it's long and grain. Anybody have experienced with something like this? Does it cause major problems or not affect them. Any input would be fab thanks!
Horses rip and tear with their front incisors and chew with their molars. We've seen a lot of fat and sassy horses with their front incisors missing. You just can't put them in a pasture with short grass.. Wouldn't stop me from buying one. You just need to keep up on dental work as every horse should be kept up on good dental work anyway.
I would think it would be similar to a horse that is parrot mouthed where they may have the front incisors but they are basically useless because of how they stick over the bottom teeth. Maintenance is similar for them, no short grass pastures, wet feed if necessary, plenty of hay, and routine dental work, usually twice a year instead of once.
I had a mare that got her front teeth smashed out during a trailer accident as a 3 year old. She always had to have her feed soaked or she became very picky when she ate grain and spilled it all over the place. Eating grass wasn't a problem since she had figured out how to do everything without her teeth from an early age. My current gelding has a few missing from a bad dental visit when we first moved. He has zero problems eating hay, his hay pellets, or his supplements. He doesn't get grain so i'm not sure if he would spill like my mare I had as a child did but honestly I forget he is missing a few teeth until I get a call from the vet reminding me he's due for his checkup:) He gets about twice as many as my current mare does just to make sure nothing is getting stuck in the crevices and no infections are forming.
To answer you're question: If the horse is having no problems eating, performing, or doing anything you are wanting him to do, i'd say get him.
No Teeth!!
