Anne Laure Dubourg, dentiste équin

ABOUT... MY HISTORY

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How did you arrive at this job?

 

Rider since the childhood, my route was interrupted for numerous years after the accidental death of my mom during a horse trekking, I was 12 years old.

 

Afterward, I followed studies in a completely different topic which brought me to travel a lot and to live abroad several years, in particular in Ireland where I found the courage to practice again my passion in spite of the emotional impact I had.

 

As I was not able to forget my passion, I put a lot in it. I rode up to 3 times a week and cleaned up the stables every  weekend to spend more time with horses, and by chance I discovered equine dentistry. 

Interested by this very different job, I looked for more information about it and I had the opportunity  to accompany for his journey a great horse dentist, trained in the United States, Ciaran Buckley.

 

At that time my destiny has changed. When I came back to France few months later, my choice was made and I began my training at the International Institute of Equine Dentistry within the riding center of Pibrac, near Toulouse.

 

What pleases you in this unusual activity? 

 

My biggest enjoyment in this job is to work with these extraordinary animals and to see the confidence they give us during the intervention which I practise with manual floats to remain precise and respectful. 

The pleasure to feel their gratitude once their well-being found back is a precious gift.

This exchange between them and me is inestimable and give me hapiness day after day.

 

How would you describe your job? 

 

It is more than a job, it is a passion. It is physically hard but very enriching that allows us, as I think any job in contact with animals, to take nothing for granted and  to discover who we really are because they are the reflection amplified of our «I inside».

Some describe us as «grating and extracting technicians», but the knowledge required to exercise this job are numerous and sharp in particular on the anatomy of the head and the rules of the occlusion science (science of the good balance and the functioning of the mouth) to avoid any dysfunction and any compensation on the body which is a set.

 

I am sure that each of us has, by experience, an overview of the importance of a good dental balance on the body image (headaches, dizzinesses, pains of back, cervical pain and more). 

So for our equine friends it is the same thing and especially as their teeth grow throughout their life, phenomenon compensated by the wear induced during chewing.