The Horse's Advocate Podcast is about helping horse owners find the missing horse owner's manual for owning and caring for horses. Geoff Tucker, DVM (aka, "Doc T"), brings you wisdom from almost 50 years with horses. But beware - some of this stuff is NOT what you might expect. When the "box to think outside of" was built, he was never included and remained outside! This show aims to Help Horses Thrive In A Human World.
Since 1983, I have seen horse dentistry shift from hand-floating, done without medication or machines, to a mechanical approach using sedation and motorized tools to remove sharp enamel edges. My main argument is that these newer procedures are not proven to achieve better outcomes, yet are often promoted based on arbitrary goals. As a result, horse owners may become confused or exposed to unnecessary techniques that may not benefit their horses. Listeners may react strongly to this podcast because horse dentistry divides opinion. My central point is simple: horses should receive dental care, regardless of the technique. Yet debates over various methods overshadow the real issue: many horses get no dental care at all. It's like missing the main purpose of a journey by arguing about driving style, while the real problem is not picking up the passenger. If horses in rural areas lack access to dental care—whether due to a lack of practitioners or restrictive laws—they continue to suffer. My focus is to explain why I use my methods and to emphasize that it is better for horses to receive reasonable dental care, by any method, than none at all. Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:32 - My equine dentistry training and personal beliefs. 2:15 - The history of equine dentistry is obscure and non-memorable. 5:44 - The horse's threshold of pain and their ability to express themselves without sedation. 8:02 - The purpose of medicating horses for dentistry. 11:12 - All areas of every tooth can be addressed with hand floats once the anatomy and position of the teeth within the horse's mouth are learned. 13:12 - The three lies often given to say why hand floating is less effective than power floating with sedation. 14:24 - Horsemanship reasons for not using drugs and power equipment to float horses. 16:25 - Practical reasons for not using drugs and power equipment to float horses. 17:44 - Scientific reasons for not using drugs and power equipment to float horses. 18:25 - Conclusions about floating horses and the method used. ******************************* #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare #equinedentistry Join us at The Horses Advocate Community page : https://community.thehorsesadvocate.com/yt Dentistry : https://theequinepractice.com/ Horsemanship Dentistry School: https://www.horsemanshipdentistryschool.com/c/information/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/TheHorsesAdvocate Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/horsesadvocate/ Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973, earning his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Geoff went from mucking stalls as a farmhand to starting his own equine practice. He advocates for the horse by educating horse owners through his vast experience, with an emphasis on dentistry, horsemanship, nutrition, and more.
In the last podcast (#183 - How Does Energy Flow Keep Your Horse Alive And Healthy?), the energy potential of the cell is its ability to perform all necessary functions, which was the product of supply (energy flow) and demand (energy resistance). The "sweet spot" for the supply and demand is regulated by the individual. But living in the human world has affected the amount of energy available for cellular functions or the cell's ability to use it (energy resistance). The result can be either too much or too little of each, which results in malfunctioning cells, illness, lameness, and even death. In this podcast, I look at the flow of energy in a way that allows horse owners to see horses as energy containers, with energy flowing through them from food into movement and then into waste (water and carbon dioxide). This simplicity allows us to identify the friction points that cause illness and poor performance. The concepts given here are actually simpler than how you think about your horse care now. Clarity allows you to look at your horses (and possibly yourself) with a better understanding of how the body works. Health improvements come specifically from reduced stress and inflammation, which can help your horse perform better and stay healthier. Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction and review of Podcast 183. Energy Potential (EP) = Energy Flow (EF) x Energy Resistance (ER), the supply and demand theory, and Energy = mass times the speed of light squared, or E = mc² 3:54 - The 3 cell functions that require energy, all cell functions have a cost, and all cells have a finite maximum amount of energy. 7:23 - Resistance and Energy Flow affect the cell's ability to function. 11:44 - Supply and demand within cells, presented as a math problem: disease is when the product of decreased energy flow and increased energy resistance falls outside of the cell's "sweet spot." 12:35 - Colic in terms of energy. 14:32 - Laminitis in terms of energy. 16:28 - All other diseases in horses in terms of energy. 18:00 - Why increasing food intake doesn't increase cell energy. 21:15 - Using diet and exercise to adjust cell energy use to find the "sweet spot." 25:30 - The effect of stress on cellular energy potential. 27:37 - Summary: energy supply x the demand for that energy = the cell's energy potential (health or illness). ******************************* #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare #equinedentistry Join us at The Horses Advocate Community page : https://community.thehorsesadvocate.com/yt Dentistry : https://theequinepractice.com/ Horsemanship Dentistry School: https://www.horsemanshipdentistryschool.com/c/information/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/TheHorsesAdvocate Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/horsesadvocate/ Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973, earning his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Geoff went from mucking stalls as a farmhand to starting his own equine practice. He advocates for the horse by educating horse owners through his vast experience, with an emphasis on dentistry, horsemanship, nutrition, and more.
Everything that happens in horses requires energy. Similarly, every household and business has a budget. When there is enough money, everything is good, and with our horses, if there is enough energy, the horses remain healthy and even thrive. This podcast looks at energy flow like a budget: there is a supply of energy, and there is demand for it to keep the horse functioning. At a cell level, every cell has a function that requires energy: muscles contracting or the brain thinking. In addition, cells also have an energy budget for growth, maintenance, and repair. Finally, the products of metabolism (reactive oxygen species, or ROS) need to be removed, which also incurs a cost. Any added "resistance" to the flow of energy in the cell, such as inflammation and stress, reduces the available energy for the cell's function and maintenance. Timestamps: 0:00 - The basic cause of health in horses. 1:09 - The flow of energy. 4:30 - Oxygen is required for life. 5:36 - Moving one electron from a hydrogen atom to an oxygen atom creates energy that the cell uses. 7:20 - Life is the flow of electrons from hydrogen to oxygen. 8:14 - The vital function of cells. 9:14 - All cell functions have an energy cost, and all cells have an energy budget. 10:30 The cell's vital purpose is determined by its resistance to the flow of energy through the cell. 12:39 - The "sweet spot" of energy flow and energy resistance. 13:16 - The three parts of cell function: vital purpose, growth/maintenance/repair, and stress 17:03 - How can energy flow and resistance in horse cells be changed? 19:37 - Summary: The supply and demand for energy determine the cell's energy potential. ******************************* #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare #equinedentistry Join us at The Horses Advocate Community page : https://community.thehorsesadvocate.com/yt Dentistry : https://theequinepractice.com/ Horsemanship Dentistry School: https://www.horsemanshipdentistryschool.com/c/information/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/TheHorsesAdvocate Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/horsesadvocate/ Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973, earning his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Geoff went from mucking stalls as a farmhand to starting his own equine practice. He advocates for the horse by educating horse owners through his vast experience, with an emphasis on dentistry, horsemanship, nutrition, and more.
There are two ways to provide vitamins, minerals, and amino acids to your horse: through factories or nature. In this episode, I discuss how horses obtain these nutrients naturally and where natural sources fall short. I also explore the production of these nutrients in laboratories and factories. I spend some time looking at where using man-made materials is required due to the environments in which horses live. For example, horses grazing large fields of fresh green grass undoubtedly have different needs than those raised in a dry lot. You will be surprised how adaptive horses can be up to a point. What may be more surprising is how few companies make the ingredients we discuss. Of concern are the many hands in the supply chain, in the production of the final product, and how often they sell the same ingredient under different brand names. 0:01 - Why horses may need supplements. 01:49 - Water: ground versus distilled. 02:17 - Minerals: macro and micro. Common deficiencies. Chelation. Why horses rarely get mineral deficiencies. Thumps (Synchronous Diaphragmatic Flutter), Electrolytes, Rickets, Magnesium deficiency and its associated behavior changes. 09:02 - Protein and amino acid deficiency: Natural versus synthetic amino acids, Signs of an amino acid deficiency, Genetic modification of microorganisms. 13:29 - About 80% of all amino acids and vitamins are made in China—discussion of the supply chain from raw materials to production facilities. 17:15 - The first of two problems: Man-made vitamins and amino acids are either made from chemicals or from genetically modified microorganisms, and the long supply chain from raw materials to the final product in your barn has too many points of non-verifiable steps and materials. 18:32- The second of two problems: How can the deficit or the results of supplementation be verified in the horse? 21:37 - Testing the diet that the horse is eating and comparing that to the signs of deficiencies. 23:21 - The fallacy that placing supplements in the food, other than macronutrients, will fix an underlying energy problem (mitochondria). 25:17 - The chemical in gunpowder that caused increased mitochondrial function and subsequent loss of body fat despite over-eating. It was called DNP (dinitrophenol), which acts as a mitochondrial uncoupler: It disrupts the proton gradient in cells, causing the body to "waste" energy as heat (thermogenesis) instead of storing it as ATP. This ramps up metabolic rate (sometimes by 30–50% or more), leading to rapid fat and carbohydrate breakdown and significant weight loss—even without dieting. (Wikipedia) Banned in 1938 by the FDA. 26:45 - Without the ability to test horses for a deficiency, feed companies just throw in amino acids, vitamins, and minerals to cover any possibilities without any proof they are needed. 29:30 - Vitamin C in humans and horses. 31:06 - Vitamins A, D, E, and K in horses. 33:51 - The B Vitamins. 34:35 - Summary of how and where raw materials are made, and the long supply chain to the final product sold to horse owners. Look at the horse for a deficiency. Look at the diet for deficiencies. Protein deficiency is the most common one seen, with the most problems in horses due to the lack of protein. Remove ingredients that inflame the gut. ******************************* #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare #equinedentistry Join us at The Horses Advocate Community page : https://community.thehorsesadvocate.com/yt Dentistry : https://theequinepractice.com/ Horsemanship Dentistry School: https://www.horsemanshipdentistryschool.com/c/information/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/TheHorsesAdvocate Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/horsesadvocate/ Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973. He earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Over the years, Geoff went from mucking stalls as a farmhand to starting his own equine practice. This journey helped him learn how to blend medical care with good horsemanship. Geoff believes in doing what is best for the horse and also in working with the horse. While at Cornell, he started the Cornell Student Horseman's Association, which organized talks with local experts, a knowledge competition called the Intercollegiate Horse Bowl, and Foal Watch at the Equine Research Park to help with live foal deliveries. Wanting to educate horse owners even more, Geoff also launched the first "I Love New York Horse Symposium," which drew 500 people from across the northeast. Geoff also worked at the Equine Isolation Lab alongside respected colleagues, including Dr. Coggins, whose name is on the well-known test. He worked both part-time and full-time at Cornell's Equine Research Park. On graduation day in 1984, while his classmates celebrated, Geoff drove his fully stocked vet truck to his first call—a sick foal. This marked the beginning of The Finger Lakes Equine Practice, which still operates today. Geoff sold the practice in 1996, worked for a short time at another clinic near Albany, NY, and then started The Equine Practice, focusing on equine dentistry. He continues this work from his base in South Florida. Geoff worked on his first horse's teeth in 1983, when his mentor showed him how to place his hand inside a horse's mouth without medication and rasp off the offending sharp points. He was hooked from the start and made dentistry a key part of his practice. Since then, he has examined the mouths of over 84,000 horses across the United States - yes, he's been counting.
My mailbox and inbox get a never-ending stream of advertisements, all promising that my horse will become free of disease or super-athletic. Some boast scientific research backing their claims, while others have endorsements from winning contestants. All use the time-tested formula of identifying a condition your horse might have, then claiming their product will resolve it. But is any of it true? I will review some advertisements sent to my mailbox and guide you through the essential questions to help you objectively evaluate their claims. My main goal is to encourage you to make informed decisions and consider whether prevention is often more effective than seeking costly cures. Science may be undergoing a revolution because the results scientists are producing don't correspond to improvements in human healthspan or lifespan; both are becoming stagnant. I go over some of the changes at the human level and show how they will help our horses if adopted there as well. ******************************* #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare #equinedentistry Join us at The Horses Advocate Community page : https://community.thehorsesadvocate.com/yt Dentistry : https://theequinepractice.com/ Horsemanship Dentistry School: https://www.horsemanshipdentistryschool.com/c/information/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/TheHorsesAdvocate Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/horsesadvocate/ Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973. He earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Over the years, Geoff went from mucking stalls as a farmhand to starting his own equine practice. This journey helped him learn how to blend medical care with good horsemanship. Geoff believes in doing what is best for the horse and also in working with the horse. While at Cornell, he started the Cornell Student Horseman's Association, which organized talks with local experts, a knowledge competition called the Intercollegiate Horse Bowl, and Foal Watch at the Equine Research Park to help with live foal deliveries. Wanting to educate horse owners even more, Geoff also launched the first "I Love New York Horse Symposium," which drew 500 people from across the northeast. Geoff also worked at the Equine Isolation Lab alongside respected colleagues, including Dr. Coggins, whose name is on the well-known test. He worked both part-time and full-time at Cornell's Equine Research Park. On graduation day in 1984, while his classmates celebrated, Geoff drove his fully stocked vet truck to his first call—a sick foal. This marked the beginning of The Finger Lakes Equine Practice, which still operates today. Geoff sold the practice in 1996, worked for a short time at another clinic near Albany, NY, and then started The Equine Practice, focusing on equine dentistry. He continues this work from his base in South Florida. Geoff worked on his first horse's teeth in 1983, when his mentor showed him how to place his hand inside a horse's mouth without medication and rasp off the offending sharp points. He was hooked from the start and made dentistry a key part of his practice. Since then, he has examined the mouths of over 84,000 horses across the United States - yes, he's been counting.
Foals are especially vulnerable in their first months of life. Think about the first time you met a newborn foal—did you know it takes both knowledge and experience to protect them well? In this podcast, we'll dive into three of the top challenges horse owners face with foals just after birth to a few months old. This isn't a complete list, so remember, teaming up with a seasoned professional will always help you stay ahead of problems. I picked these three foal problems because they're common—and, good news, they're all preventable! Imagine welcoming a new foal into the world. Suddenly, you learn that one of the biggest risks it faces is failure of passive transfer (FPT). This can happen if the foal does not drink the mare's first milk within 24 hours of birth. Or, it may occur if the mare's milk leaks out before birth. The resulting weak immune system leaves your foal vulnerable to everyday germs. Illness and even death can follow. Have you ever noticed a foal with diarrhea? It's a common issue, with several possible causes. Diet is usually to blame, but sometimes more serious issues are at play. Have you ever noticed a foal struggling to walk, or perhaps heard about issues like contracted tendons, angular limb deformities, or epiphysitis? In addition to infection and digestive concerns, these developmental orthopedic diseases (DOD) are conditions I often see when I'm called to work on the mare's teeth. The good news is that these issues are almost always diet-related and preventable. ******************************* #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare #equinedentistry Join us at The Horses Advocate Community page : https://community.thehorsesadvocate.com/yt Dentistry : https://theequinepractice.com/ Horsemanship Dentistry School : https://www.horsemanshipdentistryschool.com/c/information/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/TheHorsesAdvocate Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/horsesadvocate/ Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973. He earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Over the years, Geoff went from mucking stalls as a farmhand to starting his own equine practice. This journey helped him learn how to blend medical care with good horsemanship. Geoff believes in doing what is best for the horse and also in working with the horse. While at Cornell, he started the Cornell Student Horseman's Association, which organized talks with local experts, a knowledge competition called the Intercollegiate Horse Bowl, and Foal Watch at the Equine Research Park to help with live foal deliveries. Wanting to educate horse owners even more, Geoff also launched the first "I Love New York Horse Symposium," which drew 500 people from across the northeast. Geoff also worked at the Equine Isolation Lab alongside respected colleagues, including Dr. Coggins, whose name is on the well-known test. He worked both part-time and full-time at Cornell's Equine Research Park. On graduation day in 1984, while his classmates celebrated, Geoff drove his fully stocked vet truck to his first call—a sick foal. This marked the beginning of The Finger Lakes Equine Practice, which still operates today. Geoff sold the practice in 1996, worked for a short time at another clinic near Albany, NY, and then started The Equine Practice, focusing on equine dentistry. He continues this work from his base in South Florida. Geoff worked on his first horse's teeth in 1983, when his mentor showed him how to place his hand inside a horse's mouth without medication and rasp off the offending sharp points. He was hooked from the start and made dentistry a key part of his practice. Since then, he has examined the mouths of over 84,000 horses across the United States - yes, he's been counting.
Filing off sharp edges inside a horse's mouth may seem a bit odd at first glance. If nature is perfect, you might wonder, why would horse teeth need this help? How did horses get by without floating, the process that smooths those sharp edges? These are thoughtful questions, and I explore them—and more—in this podcast. Some of the ideas I present are: - It is the threshold of pain, not how sharp the edges are, that determines how often to float. -Not all tooth enamel is the same among horses. -If a horse is chewing, their teeth need doing. -Using a bit moves the soft tissue into the sharp edges. -Waiting until a problem occurs often results in more aggressive treatments and a poorer outcome.
Glucose is an essential sugar for horses, but too much of it can be harmful. While diet is your main tool for reducing glucose intake, what can you do when your horse still struggles with glucose and insulin control? And are there medications that can help lower blood glucose? Let's explore one option together. If dietary changes are not enough, other strategies can help manage high glucose and insulin. For instance, veterinarians are now turning to a human drug called ertugliflozin (er-TUG-li-flo-zen) to lower blood glucose with promising results. In this discussion, you'll discover how this drug and others in its class work, what the treatment plan entails, and possible side effects to monitor. I'll also explore the cost of treatment and discuss current research on its use in horses.
Glucose is one of many sugars. It is an essential nutrient for both horses and people. When talking about sugar in food, you might hear words like carbs, starch, fructose, lactose, saccharide, or others. But for now, let's just focus on glucose. Without it, our horses—and we—cannot survive. Yet glucose damages everything it touches inside the body! It is so harmful that the phrase "glucose disposal" is often used to describe how the body protects itself from glucose. Insulin helps the body remove glucose. Without insulin, glucose levels rise in the bloodstream, harming whatever they come into contact with. To control blood glucose levels, cells respond to insulin. When a cell takes in as much glucose as it can, it stops responding to insulin. This is normal and needed for the complex process to work. If insulin resistance happens every day, why is it a problem when your horse has it? That's what this podcast is about. I'll explain how the body uses glucose, how it protects itself, and when insulin resistance becomes a real issue.
New horse owners join the community every day, from children to adults with little or no experience. Many expect horse ownership to be as simple as using everyday conveniences like microwaves or making phone calls. Yet, horses are fundamentally different. Unlike technology, which responds reliably to our commands, horses have evolved to interpret and respond to their environment using all their senses. This makes horse ownership far more complex than people often assume. To address this complexity, many new owners seek additional education or guidance to better understand their horses. But if the teaching material comes from other inexperienced people, the instructions the new owners find are either too complex, with a "to-do list" too long to remember, or are based on specialized equipment they have to purchase. The solution lies in learning how we are perceived by the horse and how we can change ourselves to help the horse understand us. To do this, horse owners need to find a mentor, observe how the horse responds to them, and then work on changing themselves so the horse perceives them positively. Stand in front of a mirror to find the solution in yourself, rather than looking at the horse to change.
Horses graze on grass and plants, not trees, because their digestive tracts—shared by equids, tapirs, and rhinoceroses—cannot digest wood. Unlike ruminants (cattle, deer, goats), they avoid lignin. When starving, however, horses may eat almost anything, which is why some plants and trees become toxic. The goal of this podcast is not to make you plant and tree experts, but to help you appreciate two key principles of horse care: always provide adequate protein and forage, and proactively remove any potentially harmful vegetation before curious horses can reach it. Your horse's health depends on your attention to these crucial details. ******************************* #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare #equinedentistry Join us at The Horses Advocate Community page : https://community.thehorsesadvocate.com/yt Dentistry : https://theequinepractice.com/ Horsemanship Dentistry School: https://www.horsemanshipdentistryschool.com/c/information/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/TheHorsesAdvocate Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/horsesadvocate/ Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973. He earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Over the years, Geoff went from mucking stalls as a farmhand to starting his own equine practice. This journey helped him learn how to blend medical care with good horsemanship. Geoff believes in doing what is best for the horse and also in working with the horse. While at Cornell, he started the Cornell Student Horseman's Association, which organized talks with local experts, a knowledge competition called the Intercollegiate Horse Bowl, and Foal Watch at the Equine Research Park to help with live foal deliveries. Wanting to educate horse owners even more, Geoff also launched the first "I Love New York Horse Symposium," which drew 500 people from across the northeast. Geoff also spent time working at the Equine Isolation Lab with respected colleagues, including Dr. Coggins, whose name is on the well-known test. He worked both part-time and full-time at Cornell's Equine Research Park. On graduation day in 1984, while his classmates celebrated, Geoff drove his fully stocked vet truck to his first call—a sick foal. This marked the beginning of The Finger Lakes Equine Practice, which still operates today. Geoff sold the practice in 1996, worked for a short time at another clinic near Albany, NY, and then started The Equine Practice, focusing on equine dentistry. He continues this work from his base in South Florida. Geoff worked on his first horse's teeth in 1983, when his mentor showed him how to place his hand inside a horse's mouth without medication and rasp off the offending sharp points. He was hooked from the start and made dentistry a key part of his practice. Since then, he has examined the mouths of over 84,000 horses across the United States - yes, he's been counting.
Science relies on asking questions, testing them, obtaining answers, and questioning those answers again. Scientists never settle; their curiosity drives them to consider all possibilities, regardless of prior beliefs. There is never a final answer—only answers that are close. This approach depends on continuous inquiry and skepticism. Horse owners are not scientists, and they are not trained to perform "research." Instead, they, and in fact the scientists themselves, are people who have evolved to work towards "social acceptance" as a means to survive harsh conditions that existed for millions of years. Believing other people who appeared to know things you didn't know is a natural phenomenon - people don't want to "rock the boat." The result is the formation of a social identity that gives us stability within a group. Examples include people in horse sports such as reining, dressage, eventing, or racing. Other examples are in differing opinions about treatments or care. This podcast discusses how scientific studies have rules to prevent bias, steering researchers towards a more accurate answer to their question (hypothesis). Unfortunately, untrained people are unable to see when scientific rules are broken, making the results of studies, especially nutritional studies about horses, unreliable when reported by the press. Worse is when those magazines are funded by advertisements that support the outcomes they promote. Hopefully, through this podcast, horse owners will become aware and keep asking questions until the foundational truths about our horses' health are discovered. ******************************* #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare #equinedentistry Join us at The Horses Advocate Community page : https://community.thehorsesadvocate.com/yt Dentistry : https://theequinepractice.com/ Horsemanship Dentistry School: https://www.horsemanshipdentistryschool.com/c/information/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/TheHorsesAdvocate Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/horsesadvocate/ Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973. He earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Over the years, Geoff went from mucking stalls as a farmhand to starting his own equine practice. This journey helped him learn how to blend medical care with good horsemanship. Geoff believes in doing what is best for the horse and also in working with the horse. While at Cornell, he started the Cornell Student Horseman's Association, which organized talks with local experts, a knowledge competition called the Intercollegiate Horse Bowl, and Foal Watch at the Equine Research Park to help with live foal deliveries. Wanting to educate horse owners even more, Geoff also launched the first "I Love New York Horse Symposium," which drew 500 people from across the northeast. Geoff also spent time working at the Equine Isolation Lab with respected colleagues, including Dr. Coggins, whose name is on the well-known test. He worked both part-time and full-time at Cornell's Equine Research Park. On graduation day in 1984, while his classmates celebrated, Geoff drove his fully stocked vet truck to his first call—a sick foal. This marked the beginning of The Finger Lakes Equine Practice, which still operates today. Geoff sold the practice in 1996, worked for a short time at another clinic near Albany, NY, and then started The Equine Practice, focusing on equine dentistry. He continues this work from his base in South Florida. Geoff worked on his first horse's teeth in 1983, when his mentor showed him how to place his hand inside a horse's mouth without medication and rasp off the offending sharp points. He was hooked from the start and made dentistry a key part of his practice. Since then, he has examined the mouths of over 84,000 horses across the United States - yes, he's been counting.
NOTE: There is a section about 1 minute long where it sounds different because I inserted a video of me driving my hands-free car. To see it, please watch this on YouTube. We all know that horses are not robots. Robots are mechanisms that do not think; they simply execute programmed instructions. They are designed to perform tasks that humans are unable or unwilling to do themselves. Examples include robots working in hazardous areas such as deep water or toxic environments, or managing heavy lifting in factories. Horses have often been used like robots, performing tasks humans cannot or will not do. This creates a dilemma: a horse is both a sentient being and a tool for work. When we train horses, we want them to perform complex tasks, but we also seek a true connection with them. Yet, few people excel at this connection. Why is that? To work effectively with horses, humans must be programmed like robots—but traditional training methods rely on copying others' experiences instead of fostering individual understanding. Just as AI language models (such as Google, OpenAI, and Grok) repeat others' knowledge rather than create their own, this approach fails with horses and genuine connections. In this podcast, I explain a new paradigm: prioritize learning directly from your own experiences. As my wife says: become quiet, listen, and be in the moment.
The first time I heard the words "Sugar Fungus" used with horses, I thought it might be a new, and possibly harmful, reportable disease. I braced myself for the thought that another new disease was invading the world of horses, and that there may not be a cure. However, to my surprise, I learned that sugar fungus is the translation of a common yeast called Saccharomyces: Sacro meaning sugar, and myces meaning yeast (from the Greek). This yeast is generally beneficial, supporting digestive processes in both animals and humans. This yeast appears in baker's yeast, brewer's yeast, and sourdough starter. The most common species is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, widely recognized for its role in fermentation. Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is commonly added as an ingredient in commercial horse feeds. In this podcast, I discuss what it is, the common forms found in horse feeds, and the proposed benefits of adding it. I then discuss what many call "unintended consequences," or the possible downstream effects of many foods and food additives. I describe the Polyol Pathway (aka the Sorbitol Pathway) and how yeasts are known triggers, along with high-glycemic foods, such as grains. The overall effect of adding yeasts to grains may be an increase in fructose production, leading to aggressive behavior, increased body fat, and decreased mitochondrial efficiency. As always, none of this has been shown to occur in horses because studies have been performed only in humans and lab animals; however, most studies using Saccharomyces cerevisiae added to a grain feed to help horses with stress indicate that feeding an all-forage diet before stressful events may be just as effective.
The April 2026 edition of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA Vol. 264, #4) caught my attention with 4 articles and an author's response to an article. In this podcast, I use the information gathered from them to suggest that many new veterinary graduates are a combination of the following: They may be focusing more on acceptance from their peers over competent patient care (acceptance by their veterinary team). They may be reading published scientific articles that are partly generated by artificial intelligence hallucinations (manufactured falsehoods). They may be carrying a larger educational debt load (struggling financially). They are in a profession with declining patient visits and increased care costs (decreasing practice income). They are struggling to provide affordable patient care within clients' financial means, which may fall short of the gold standard of care they were taught in school (an affordable spectrum of care). These five points raised in the journal are not being adequately addressed because mentors are retiring or dying without passing on time-proven care that many clients expect and can afford. The remaining practice owners hiring new graduates are caught between rising practice costs, declining income, and a wave of younger people with one eye on the patient and the other on a sense of self-worth they are told is tied to their ability to get along with their teammates. The crisis in veterinary care for horses is much more than increasing a new graduate's salary. It is a lack of good horsemanship skills, along with a spectrum of care choices that help horse owners address their horse's problem. However, horse owners also have an obligation to ensure they can support the care of all animals entrusted to them, not just financially, but also with the knowledge to prevent illness and injuries. #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare #equinedentistry --------- Join us at The Horses Advocate Community page : https://community.thehorsesadvocate.com/yt Dentistry : https://theequinepractice.com/ Horsemanship Dentistry School : https://www.horsemanshipdentistryschool.com/c/information/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/TheHorsesAdvocate Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/horsesadvocate/ Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973. He earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Over the years, Geoff went from mucking stalls as a farmhand to starting his own equine practice. This journey helped him learn how to blend medical care with good horsemanship. Geoff believes in doing what is best for the horse and also in working with the horse. While at Cornell, he started the Cornell Student Horseman's Association, which organized talks with local experts, a knowledge competition called the Intercollegiate Horse Bowl, and Foal Watch at the Equine Research Park to help with live foal deliveries. Wanting to educate horse owners even more, Geoff also launched the first "I Love New York Horse Symposium," which drew 500 people from across the northeast. Geoff also spent time working at the Equine Isolation Lab with respected colleagues, including Dr. Coggins, whose name is on the well-known test. He worked both part-time and full-time at Cornell's Equine Research Park. On graduation day in 1984, while his classmates celebrated, Geoff drove his fully stocked vet truck to his first call—a sick foal. This marked the beginning of The Finger Lakes Equine Practice, which still operates today. Geoff sold the practice in 1996, worked for a short time at another clinic near Albany, NY, and then started The Equine Practice, focusing on equine dentistry. He continues this work from his base in South Florida. Geoff worked on his first horse's teeth in 1983, when his mentor showed him how to place his hand inside a horse's mouth without medication and rasp off the offending sharp points. He was hooked from the start and made dentistry a key part of his practice. Since then, he has examined the mouths of over 84,000 horses across the United States - yes, he's been counting.
Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) and Insulin Resistance (IR) are just words to most horse owners. We hear them, and we hope our horse doesn't "get them" attached to their health report. Even the veterinarians get a bit confused about how horses get started on the path of poor metabolic health. Expressions are created that lack meaning, such as "sugar is evil." If it were, why does it exist? So, I did some digging, surprising myself to find that what was taught to me in vet school over 40 years ago has recently been turned on its head! Here is one example: there is no such thing as lactic acidosis in muscles caused by anaerobic exercise (low oxygen). Insulin resistance is a normal, regulatory process that ensures our cells receive the right amount of fuel. In this podcast, I explain how understanding this can transform the way you feed your horses, improving their health and saving you money. Clear, science-based insights will help you cut through the confusion often found in barn conversations, magazines, and social media. We want the best for our horses, both in their health and in their performance. We are conditioned by marketing to believe we should add products to fix a problem, when that is rarely effective. For example, if your car's engine lacked power, you wouldn't add more fuel tanks to make it run better. Yet, that's what happens when different feeds and supplements are added to a horse's diet—it doesn't solve the problem and can worsen it. Listen to this podcast a few times and take notes, as I did to create it. #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare Please join our FREE community here: The Horse's Advocate Community page For more information about dentistry for horses: Dr. Tucker's Dentistry Practice Information about The Horsemanship Dentistry School Follow us on Facebook Learn more at Instagram Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973. He earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Over the years, Geoff went from mucking stalls as a farmhand to starting his own equine practice. This journey helped him learn how to blend medical care with good horsemanship. Geoff believes in doing what is best for the horse and in working with the horse. While at Cornell, he started the Cornell Student Horseman's Association, which organized talks with local experts, a knowledge competition called the Intercollegiate Horse Bowl, and Foal Watch at the Equine Research Park to help with live foal deliveries. Wanting to educate horse owners even more, Geoff also launched the first "I Love New York Horse Symposium," which drew 500 people from across the northeast. Geoff also spent time working at the Equine Isolation Lab with respected colleagues, including Dr. Coggins, whose name is on the well-known test. He worked both part-time and full-time at Cornell's Equine Research Park. On graduation day in 1984, while his classmates celebrated, Geoff drove his fully stocked vet truck to his first call—a sick foal. This marked the beginning of The Finger Lakes Equine Practice, which still operates today. Geoff sold the practice in 1996, worked for a short time at another clinic near Albany, NY, and then started The Equine Practice, focusing on equine dentistry. He continues this work from his base in South Florida. Geoff worked on his first horse's teeth in 1983, when his mentor showed him how to place his hand inside a horse's mouth without medication and rasp off the offending sharp points. He was hooked from the start and made dentistry a key part of his practice. Since then, he has examined the mouths of over 84,000 horses across the United States - yes, he's been counting.
Cancer is defined as normal cells of the body behaving badly, at least that's the simple explanation given by AI. It's more complex than that. Luckily, in horses, cancer is rare; three of the top five occur in the skin, where we can see them. Of the other two, one is in the ovaries and remains locally there, and the other is in the blood, which isn't good. This podcast covers two related topics: the top five cancers and ways to prevent your horse from developing cancer. But it must be said that I am not an oncologist (an expert in cancer). Therefore, the descriptions of the cancers are superficial. I do this because there are so many new treatments veterinarians are using; all you really need to do is recognize them and contact your local expert. There is also the fact that these cancers have been around for hundreds of years, according to books dating back to the Roman days, and that the treatments haven't really changed: surgery and natural chemicals applied topically. Vaccines are being tried along with chemotherapy, but with so few horses with cancer, there are not many available for research. The second half of the podcast describes the use of glucose and, more importantly, lactate as fuels for all cells. When a cell becomes cancerous, its energy needs increase due to increased cell duplication and proliferation. The rate of glucose uptake and lactate production increases, signaling these cells to weaken and promote the further growth of cancer cells. There are many anecdotal stories in humans where cancer patients overcome their disease by not eating any glucose, which is an easy task by eating only meat. But is it possible that horses can restrict their vegetarian diet to consume less glucose and, therefore, reduce their risk of cancer? Further, can the addition of sufficient high-quality protein improve the skin's ability to defend against the causes of two of the three common skin cancers? In past podcasts, I described why horses should eat only forage, limit this to half a day, and add high-quality protein (soybean meal) to help them thrive and avoid metabolic diseases. Could this also help prevent cancer, too? There is no proof, but then again, if the horse thrives, then by definition, every cell in their body thrives.
My wife placed a supplement ad for horses in front of me and said it was "interesting." She knows me, so she was testing me to see if this one was really special or just another waste of money. Rather than give the same old response about marketing ploys to take money without substantiating the product, I decided to go deeper. The expression "correlation does not mean causation" is familiar. But what about randomized, controlled studies - the "gold standard" of research? Do these expensive, precise studies live up to the hype? Not necessarily. Mendelian randomization is a new approach to randomizing a study population in a true and natural way. It reduces (or eliminates) biases by looking for variations in the genetic code that have occurred over millions of years. This podcast goes into SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) and GWAS (Genome Wide Association Studies) to see if this new research technology has come into horse research, and more importantly, if it can prove the use of supplements to make horses healthier.
Cornell Veterinary School is well established as one of the best veterinary schools in the world, renowned for specialties like wildlife, infectious diseases, and equine practice. A quick search of data shows that Cornell's vet school was ranked #1 from 2000 (no data before this) until 2015. Currently, it is ranked #2 in America (behind the University of California, Davis) and #3 in the world (behind the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, and UC Davis). Being accepted into their program was not only an honor, but also a miracle: one of only 80 people accepted in 1980. I tried not to sleep through my classes. When I graduated, I set up my equine practice 15 miles from the school, which allowed me to use it as my referral hospital. One afternoon in 1991, I sent in a colic I considered surgical. The resident veterinarian performed a rectal exam and confirmed the presence of a displaced bowel. But, instead of agreeing with the surgical treatment, he said, "I think this is one of those new colics I just read about!" My look of surprise went unnoticed as he continued with the description of a nephrosplenic ligament entrapment, a new form of colic recently reported in a veterinary journal. And while the first report of this colic was in 1902 in Hungary, it was not until 1991 that a JAVMA (Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association) article reported it, making it widely known among veterinarians. Now, I often hear clients mention that their horse recently suffered from a nephrosplenic ligament entrapment colic. The pattern of current ailments of horses not mentioned in my 1984 veterinary textbooks invites the question of why. This podcast covers these "new" diseases and stimulates us to ask what has changed in the care of horses to cause them.
Most advice from horse professionals focuses on solving problems using standard approaches, rather than looking for the root cause. For example, if you look at a chart of all causes of death in horses, dental issues barely register compared to colic, laminitis, or metabolic diseases. Many horse owners truly love their horses, even if they struggle to explain why. They want the best for their animals, but often depend on experts for advice and care, without considering how they might prevent problems before needing expert help. Horse owners often look for someone to fix their horses when something goes wrong, but horses are not like cars that can just be repaired in a shop. Still, both veterinary and non-veterinary care often treat horses as if they are objects with problems to solve, without considering the horse's perspective. It's true that many skilled people can help fix these issues, but it's worth asking if every repair is really needed, or if there might be simpler solutions. Sometimes, people approach fixing horses in ways that make themselves seem more important, which can make things more complicated than necessary. Many horse owners, even though they care deeply, follow expert advice without always considering what's best for the horse. In my podcast, I talk about a new way to treat a passage between a horse's mouth and sinus, where food can move from the mouth into the sinus and come out the nostril. To us, this discharge smells bad and needs daily care, but from the horse's point of view, it doesn't seem to be a problem—at least, scientific reports don't mention it. How common is this issue? Do horses really need to be fixed if nothing is done?
