The Horse's Advocate Podcast

The debate over horse dentistry needs to be resolved before it escalates into an all-out war, leaving horses without the dental care they need. The two main issues fueling this conflict—hand floating versus power equipment, and the debate over whether only veterinarians or non-veterinarians should perform dental work—have been ongoing since the 1960s. I know this history well, as I began my own journey into equine dentistry in 1983.
Like many forgotten histories, this discussion often pits people against one another without understanding past mistakes and solutions. Those involved focus solely on their own perspectives, turning the debate into a personal battle in which the horses are caught in the middle, suffering as their needs are misrepresented or ignored.
As this conflict continues to play out on social media and in veterinary meetings, an increasing number of horse owners are opting not to have their horses' teeth cared for. Consequently, horses are left chewing in pain or struggling with the bit, only to see a dentist when the dental issues become severe, rather than receiving preventive maintenance.
In this podcast, I will discuss this dilemma by examining the various schools of thought, which often rest on unproven theories and distorted facts. It's time for all parties to cease fighting and for veterinarians to expand their scope of care, offering more options for horse owners. By doing so, we can ensure that more horses receive the dental care they need, which is essential to Help Horses Thrive In A Human World™.
**********
Community.TheHorsesAdvocate.com is a place to learn about horses, horse barns, and farms. Its information is free, and there is a membership side that allows horse owners to attend live meetings to ask questions and deepen their understanding of what they have learned on the site. Membership helps support this message and spread it to everyone worldwide who works with horses.
The Equine Practice, Inc. website discusses how and why I perform equine dentistry without immobilization or the automatic use of drugs. I only accept new clients in Florida. Click here to make an appointment.
The Horsemanship Dentistry School is a place for those interested in learning how to perform equine dentistry without drugs on 97% of horses.
Please give a thumbs-up or a  5-star review and share these everywhere. I know horse owners worldwide listen, and the horses need every one of you in "Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World."

The model for training veterinarians is broken. Horse owners complain about the cost and the outcome of advanced procedures and diagnostics. Young veterinary graduates quickly become disillusioned, experience declining morale, and elect to leave the profession. The veterinary crisis is real and is occurring mostly in the horse and food animal care. As horse owners, the decline is affecting all but the elite horse centers; rural horse owners are either struggling to choose or decline expensive care options, facing ineffective or nonexistent care providers, or losing their horse prematurely.
This podcast looks at the December, 2025 Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Supplemental Edition, which focuses exclusively on a new concept in veterinary medicine: Scope of Care (SOC). Veterinary colleges are incorporating into their pedagogy (the art, science, and profession of teaching students) the idea of offering a broad selection of care, including different costs and outcomes. This approach effectively removes the time-honored tradition of providing the "Gold Standard" of care as the only option for horse owners.
While on the surface, the offer of less costly care for horses by veterinarians appears to be a win for horse owners, it masks the fact that horse practices are failing. Declining morale among young veterinarians and owners' loss of confidence in these vets is a double punch; the result is fewer horse veterinarians charging more for diagnostics and procedures that are not scientifically compared to other, more traditional treatments.
**********
Community.TheHorsesAdvocate.com is a place to learn about horses, horse barns, and farms. Its information is free, and there is a membership side that allows horse owners to attend live meetings to ask questions and deepen their understanding of what they have learned on the site. Membership helps support this message and spread it to everyone worldwide who works with horses.
The Equine Practice, Inc. website discusses how and why I perform equine dentistry without immobilization or the automatic use of drugs. I only accept new clients in Florida. Click here to make an appointment.
The Horsemanship Dentistry School is a place for those interested in learning how to perform equine dentistry without drugs on 97% of horses.
Please give a thumbs-up or a  5-star review and share these everywhere. I know horse owners worldwide listen, and the horses need every one of you in "Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World."

As science advances, new ideas about our existence develop that challenge our beliefs. As 2026 begins, more and more credible scientists, with irrefutable credentials, are now willing to address ideas that, only a few years ago, would have been dismissed. Luckily, those of you who have been following me over the years will notice my hinting that there is something "out there" that connects us to horses (and each other).
In my 2010 book, "The Ten Irrefutable Laws Of Horsemanship," I suggested in Law Nine that "Energy Is Everything." Now, 16 years later, science is finding the facts behind this law.
This podcast discusses the findings of a Columbia Professor of Mitochondrial Psychobiology, Dr Martin Picard. This new field describes the transformation of energy within the mitochondria of cells, from food, water, and air into thoughts, emotions, behavior, action, and health. The findings align well with the thoughts of a Harvard Professor and psychiatrist, Dr Christopher Palmer, who hypothesizes that all brain diseases are a lack of energy within the brain. Can a lack of energy in some organs (the brain, the heart, the connective tissue, the skin, the hooves), due to the allocation of a set amount of total energy to gut inflammation and environmental stress in horses, be the root cause of disease, lameness, and behavioral issues?
Dr Martin Picard - https://www.picardlab.org
Dr Christopher Palmer - https://brainenergy.com
**********
Community.TheHorsesAdvocate.com is a place to learn about horses, horse barns, and farms. Its information is free, and there is a membership side that allows horse owners to attend live meetings to ask questions and deepen their understanding of what they have learned on the site. Membership helps support this message and spread it to everyone worldwide who works with horses.
The Equine Practice, Inc. website discusses how and why I perform equine dentistry without immobilization or the automatic use of drugs. I only accept new clients in Florida. Click here to make an appointment.
The Horsemanship Dentistry School is a place for those interested in learning how to perform equine dentistry without drugs on 97% of horses.
Please give a thumbs-up or a  5-star review and share these everywhere. I know horse owners worldwide listen, and the horses need every one of you in "Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World."

The information about care for our horses is overwhelming and often conflicting. The reason is simple: accurate science with horses is impossible due to the expense.
The rule for scientific study follows a simple roadmap. First, suggest a hypothesis, which is a supposition based on observation but not on facts or evidence. Then, scientists work hard to disprove the hypothesis. If they can't prove it wrong, then it must be right, and, therefore, the hypothesis becomes a theory based on fact.
Several problems arise in collecting facts, such as ensuring there are enough subjects in the study and that they represent all subjects in the world. Studying engineering or mathematical questions can be done anywhere in the world, countless times, and with standard variables. However, in living things like you and your horses, too many variables exist to make the facts rock-solid in their validity. Studies on our horses require large numbers of horses to be examined over long periods, and the expense of doing so prevents good, accurate science.
The results are sophistry, or smoke and mirrors. Facts are twisted to shape the theory, leading to conflicting, confusing information for the horse owner. There are only two ways for horse owners to resolve this dilemma:
     - Return our care for horses to a time before human intervention, when evolution shaped their needs.
     - Ask this question: Is what is being done today to our horses in their best interest, and does it support or distract from how they developed?
This podcast starts and shapes the discussion about horse care for all horse owners, whether novice or seasoned professional. The theme is this: just because we can, should we? The hypothesis is this: Is what we do to horses in their best interest? As owners, we need to look at the "facts" that marketing geniuses say lead to their conclusions and prove whether they are true or just smoke and mirrors.
**********
Community.TheHorsesAdvocate.com is a place to learn about horses, horse barns, and farms. Its information is free, and there is a membership side that allows horse owners to attend live meetings to ask questions and deepen their understanding of what they have learned on the site. Membership helps support this message and spread it to everyone worldwide who works with horses.
The Equine Practice, Inc. website discusses how and why I perform equine dentistry without immobilization or the automatic use of drugs. I only accept new clients in Florida. Click here to make an appointment.
The Horsemanship Dentistry School is a place for those interested in learning how to perform equine dentistry without drugs on 97% of horses.
Please give a thumbs-up or a  5-star review and share these everywhere. I know horse owners worldwide listen, and the horses need every one of you in "Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World."