5 Star vetting AND Xrays?? (bit long!)

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emelia

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I have posted this in here cos I am specifically referring to the purchase of a showjumper - hope thats ok!

I am looking to get a 5 star vetting done on a potential horse and I asked for Xrays to be done too. Apparently this is unusual (according to vets)??

The last horse I bought later turned out to have arthritis so hence my paranoia this time!! However she was unvetted and unxrayed and very low price so should have guessed something was wrong!!

So what would you all recommend? Given that this new horse has been in same home for 7 yrs, low mileage and beautifully looked after would you just have the 5 star vetting and unless anything gets picked up by vet just leave it at that, knowing that if vet does pick up something I could get xrays?

All help/advice much appreciated!!!!
 
oooo how exciting what is the horse like?

I would probably just get a 5* done
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But its up to you!!
 
It really depends how much you are spending and what price (if any at all) you wish to insure the horse for.
If a fair amount of money (and for me that would be 8K plus) then I would have hocks and front feet xrayed even if horse sailed through 5 stage. If lower than that I would opt for 5 stage and only xray if there was a question mark.

A friend of mine was looking to spend a large amount of money on a horse. It passed the vets with flying colours and the sale seemed very genuine. Due to the large sums involved she had some pictures taken and they showed quite bad degeneration in the pasterns. The likelihood is these 'genuine' seller knew and the horse had had some serious joint injections prior to sale ...
 
HollyJane - 17hh Irish Sports - jumping newcomers at the moment but hope he would do a bit of fox. He has 1BE point - went up to Novice and was 2nd at Novice JAS finals.

VVVV Excited!!

Ben& Jerrys - He is on market for £7500. I take your point on the 'genuine' sellers. the thing with xrays, I think, is where do you stop??!! You could do all 4 feet, hocks, etc etc.....

Thanks for the advice guys. I think I will speak to the vet tonight and see what they suggest.
 
To insure a horse over £10k you have to have certain X- Rays.
Because I have horrendously bad luck with horses we had Bailey X-Rayed- front feet, hocks etc. I will also have my next horse X-Rayed for piece if mind
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It's unusual but certainly not worthless at all.

Personally I think for the extra few hundred pounds it could be worth it.
Even if they are clear it gives you a reference set should anything go wrong in further years.
 
Yep thats what I plan to do with my next horse. With a young horse I might also X Ray the stifles but that is pushing it to the extremes a bit- I have just had very bad luck so am now over paranoid
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Me too Lillie!!! The last one I bought turned out to have arthritis as I mentioned... she is 8 yrs old!!! hence major paranoia!! Would rather spend the money now on xrays than later down the line when its too late.

Thanks everyone for your help!!!
 
I had merlin 5stage vetted and he passed with flying colours..... now he has serious arthritis in one fetlock (but still passes a flexion test)!!!!

I think this would have showed in an x-ray but then i would not have bought him, and I would have missed a horse in a million!!!!! (to me anyway)
 
Personally if I was spending around 8k I'd want x-rays... front feet and hocks is about the norm.
However, there's usually not much need for it unless your vet picks up on something particular and advises or you feel the need for x-rays. Always better to be safe than sorry though!
 
It very much depends on the vet what they recommend. I found a lovely horse & had it vetted for general RC activities & up to PN eventing - the vet recommended X rays of the front feet for horses who were going to event - even just PN level. I was surprised but agreed to the X rays (NB horse wasnt particularly expensive, just over £5k), the horse then passed the 5 stage vetting but failed overall as he found signs of potential navicular on the X rays. Without a previous comparison set it was difficult to be sure BUT as we have 1 horse who is almost continually lame and we had vowed that we wanted to start with as clean a sheet as possible, I could not take the risk of going ahead with the purchase. Since then I have often wondered if I did the right thing but I really felt I couldn't take any chances.

When I had my next horse vetted I suggested having X rays but the vets did not consider it necessary and we agreed only to have them if there were any question marks at the vetting.

So I'd recommend that if you are at all worried, get the X rays, it is only a bit more hassle but could give you more peace of mind.
 
My horse came with x rays done 4 months previous to me buying him, otherwise i wouldve asked the vet to do them. He had a 5 stage aswell before i brought him. I think if you want a horse to go a long way in a certain discipline (mine being dressage) then you need to be certain that the horse has nothing wrong with it on purchase.
 
I had a five stage vetting and x-rays done. The x-rays were done despite passing strenuous flexion tests as he had a capped hock and I wanted to see that the joint was clean (it was). It was all rather expensive (just over £500) but well worth doing as I was confident that I wasn't taking on any avoidable problems. If he didn't have the capped hock, I'm not sure I would have had the x-rays tbh, but when you are spending a lot of money on a competition horse, that extra £500 can be well worth it and save you a lot of grief in the long term.
 
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