Pre-Purchase Exam Does this seem to be all I should have done? coming from other Equestrians?

Question

comes with lameness examination including flexion tests and observation on a longe line or under saddle, and ancillary tests such as blood work and x-rays that can be decided upon based on the horse’s intended job and age. Other diagnostic testing is often available. Whats Else Should I have done to her? this is a horse by the way..

Answer 1

You can have a myriad of other tests performed, If you wanted, but it sounds like you had the bases covered.  By the way, I prefer the lameness exam to include under-saddle work, as some problems are only evident when the horse has weight on his back.  But, you could virtually spend a fortune having every test in the book performed, up to and including muscle biopsies, but you have to stop somewhere (and I doubt that a seller would consent to submitting his horse to a m. biopsy, unless maybe the seller were asking a lot of money and the horse were exhibiting clinical signs indicating an exertional rhabdomyolysis of some sort).  Just remember that the lameness exam can only do so much - - that is, it will tell you how sound your horse is at the time of the exam, on that particular day.  There are no guarantees, and your horse can go dead lame the day after you purchase him, from something totally unforeseeable.  Vets are scientists, not fortune tellers!  If you you do all the responsible stough and look after your horse well, and he still goes lame shortly after your purchase, it''s tough, and can be really frustrating. (It's happened to me).

Answer 2

What you have done sounds good. Did you buy her and now you are having problems with her? There are many other things a vet could do with xrays, etc. The more detail you want in a pre purchase exam the more money it is going to cost you.

Another good thing to do would be to have your trainer come out and watch you ride the horse. Some stables will even let you take the horse on a trial basis to make sure the horse is best suited for you.

I think you did a pretty good job seeing as there are still so many people that even neglect to have a pre purchase exam done.

Answer 3

I always include x rays and blood work in a prepurchase, no matter what the age or use will be.  What I spend on that up front can save me heartache and thousands of dollars in the long run.  I see no need for further testing unless something questionable, but uncertain, showed up on these tests. Most of what observation and flexion tests show, I have already determined before I spend the money to have a vet prepurchase done.  If the horse doesn't pass that phase, I am not interested in proceeding on it.  If I had to have a vet do all of that, I might end up with several prepurchase exams before I found a sound horse to buy!

Answer 4

Make sure you get x-rays. I recently had a pre-purchase exam done on a horse I was looking at and the x-rays showed signs that the horse would probably have problems later on considering how high I was going to be jumping. So I really recommend getting the x-rays done. Better safe than sorry.