Making a living, straight from the horse?s mouth

Celebrated Wairarapa equestrian Kristen Maxwell has just joined the elite few qualified equine dentists in New Zealand and is looking to make a living straight from the horse's mouth.
Miss Maxwell has been riding since she was three years old and has an intuition with horses that allows them to trust her enough to put a file in their mouths and file the sharpened teeth down.
She said part of the motivation to learn about caring for horse's dental fitness is the fact that so few horse owners are aware of the importance of keeping their charge's teeth in good condition.
The 5?-week course run by the American School of Equine Dentistry did not come cheap with a price tag of $9000, but where else can you get the opportunity to look into 200 horses' mouths from Tauranga to Queenstown.
The major cause of dental discomfort in horses is a tendency for the chewing pattern to sharpen the outer edges of the teeth until they can pierce the horse's cheek.
The equine dentist treats the teeth by removing the points . It involves manipulating the mouth open and using a long file to grind the teeth back to comfortable levels.
The horses are usually surprisingly quiet in receiving the treatment, unless of course it's a talking horse called Mr Ed, but even Mr Ed might find himself linguistically challenged with a 30cm-long file and a pair of human hands in his mouth.
Miss Maxwell found out about the little known subject of equine dentistry while reading a horse magazine and realised there was a need for these skills in equestrian circles.
Miss Maxwell, 21, says she is unsure whether equine dentistry will lead to career in dental care, but she is hoping that word of her skills will circulate the equestrian fraternity and riders will bring in their trusty steeds for a little oral TLC.
The inspection and maintenance on one horse takes up to an hour, and will cost $60, which is a cheesy grin next to the price of a comparable job on the human variety.
Unlike human teeth, which once formed stop growing, horse teeth never stop growing.
In the wild, the horse's natural food and lifestyle would keep the teeth worn down, but modern horses, with higher performance expectations and a specialised diet, tend to have more tooth issues.
There are 13 horses at the Maxwell farm on Norfolk Road, which provides plenty of mouths for her to practice the art of equine dental hygiene.
So now all the pretty horses will feel all the prettier with a gob full of pearly whites and show-stopping grins.