Elizabeth Kane was so impressed with the quality of Magie Noir when she saw the Dutch mare in Europe five years ago that she decided she could over look the mare’s one fault – she was a tooth grinder.

“When she was shown to me in Holland, she was grinding her teeth and I thought, ‘I don’t want any tooth grinders,’ but I liked her so much I decided I’d just have to live with it. There were so many other nice qualities about the horse,” said Kane, an Atlanta resident. But then she brought the mare home and the grinding, which was even present when Magie was out hacking on a loose rein, began to get to Kane a bit.

“It was just her thing. It was a habit. There were no other signs stress.” Kane said. “I’m a USEF judge and I’ve been riding horses for a long time, so teeth grinding was not absolutely new to me, but dealing with it on a daily basis was and I didn’t want to hear it. I was familiar with all the tricks people use, and some of them are quite unsavory.”