Teeth and tails

[MBlanchrd <MBlanchrd@aol.com>]

Hi, all, 

    I am horse hunting for both my husband and myself. My husband is a big guy
so needs something big. We looked at a 14 yr  16 hand TB gelding the other day
that seemed to be a good one, except.......his teeth. 

His top incisors had fairly wide gaps between each tooth. In fact, they sort
of tapered to the gum line, with the wider portion being at the bottom of the
tooth. There were strange looking brown stains on the teeth at the gum line.
Plus, the edges of both top and bottom incisors were.........well, it felt as
if he'd been chewing on concrete. They were rough and ragged on the edges.
They were snaggly enough to feel scratchy.......
He would not allow me to feel his molars, and to be honest with you, I have
never been very good at examining a horses back teeth. 

 The horse acted screwy with a bit in his mouth...sticking his tongue out,
grabbing and then dropping the bit (the owner is a novice..she had the bit way
too low in his mouth.) He could almost literally pull the bit (an egg butt
snaffle) into his mouth.
His tongue, by the way, had black marks and flecks on it. First time I have
ever seen such marks on a horses' tongue.

The owner swears he doesn't crib, but I don't think she knows the difference
between cribbing and wood chewing. The gelding has a huge pasture that he has
free access to, and there's no wood for him to chew on. Nor, for that matter,
is there any concrete.  He IS by himself, and the owner says he "likes to be
with other horses". That's certainly understandable.....

He's about two hundred pounds underweight.

I am convinced the horse needs to be floated, but has anyone ever seen teeth
like this, and if so, what could have caused them to be this way??

Second question....how do you teach a horse to tail without having YOUR teeth
kicked in?? 

Michelle