October 4, 2011
Missouri Veterinarian Board Sues Non-Vet for Floating Teeth
A Missouri woman has been sued by the Missouri Veterinarian Medical Board for floating horses’ teeth. The lawsuit claims that Missouri law defines dentistry and floating as veterinary medicine. The defendant, Brooke Gray, trained at the Academy of Equine Dentistry in Idaho and completed a five-month apprenticeship in Colorado. In the response filed by Gray’s attorney, Gray asserted six Affirmative Defenses rooted in rights protected under the U.S. and Missouri Constitutions. The response also cites precedents in other licensed industries where courts have determined that certain trained practitioners in a narrow area of practice cannot be prevented from doing business just because they are not trained and licensed in broader areas in which they do not practice. The response goes on to claim that floaters have been filing horses’ teeth for hundreds of years, the services typically being provided by non-veterinarian lay persons. It claims that such individuals may be better prepared to float teeth than most veterinarians because many receive training at specialized schools where the entire curriculum is devoted to the practice, “while floating is not part of the core curriculum at any veterinary school. Furthermore, most veterinarians who regularly float horses’ teeth learn the practice from an experienced non-veterinarian floater or at one of the specialized equine dentistry schools, not at a veterinary school.” This may be the first test in the U.S. by any state veterinarian board to put non-veterinarian tooth floaters out of business. The outcome should be of interest to all horse dentists, veterinarians, and horsemen. Click for more details. Posted October 4, 2011
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A Foxhunter’s Wish
Marge Warder and Monty, Opening Meet, Tryon Hounds, 2005 / Erik Olsen photoMarge Warder has had a lifelong love affair with horses. As a child, riding was her favorite activity.
She traveled the world as a stewardess with Pan American Airways and lived the big-city life in New York.
After retirement, she moved to North Carolina, resumed her life with horses, and joined the Tryon Hounds and the Green Creek Hounds.
Last year, at the age of seventy, Marge Warder fell off her horse Monty. Something was wrong. A few months later she was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotropic lateral sclerosis, ALS). She moved into an assisted living home near her sister Carrie Bartlett in Louisiana. She decorated her room with horse stuff and told stories of her foxhunting adventures. She shared one heartfelt wish with a social worker visiting the home. She wanted to ride a horse one last time.
Raja: Story of a Racehorse
Raja: Story of a Racehorse, Anne Hambleton, Old Bow Publishing, 2011, 250 pages, illustrated by Peggy Kaufmann, $14.95The fictional adventures and travails of a well-bred Thoroughbred foal are chronicled from the early days by his dam’s side to a Grade 1 Stakes win, to the jumpers in the “A” circuit, to the New York City Mounted Police, to foxhunting with Mr. Stewart's Cheshire Foxhounds, to the Blue Ridge Hunt point-to-point, and finally to the Maryland Hunt Cup. As a foal, Raja is cursed with a phobia for lightning—the recurring source of his many troubles along the way in achieving his potential.
This may be Anne Hambleton’s first novel, but she has had plenty of practice honing her writing skills in the business side of her life. On the equine side, Hambleton is a horsewoman who knows all the disciplines intimately, and Raja’s adventures unfold believably and with authority. The characters in the story—both animal and human—are well-crafted, and we care about them.
