Another horse, another vetting...niggle setting in. Gah.

HeresHoping

HeresHoping

Well-Known Member
Joined
27 July 2012
Messages
2,564
Location
Between the Moors and the Dales
Visit site
It's a long one...please feel free to skip to the third last paragraph.:D

Having decided that I have been spending far too long looking for another horse within the confines of my meagre budget to the detriment of my work (no work = no pay = no horse anyway), I decided to bite the bullet, (wo)man up and take a trip out to a dealer who had a few good looking youngish jobs advertised.

I did my homework (i.e. trawled through here and took on board comments, noted that the reputation of said dealer was no worse than some of the others) and armed myself with my husband who was instructed to mention the fact that he is a litigation lawyer at the earliest opportunity ;):);) and drove a couple of hours to Essex.

We got there half an hour late thanks to traffic :mad: which was a tad embarrassing. Anyway, the two I'd come to see were in their stables. I inspected the first, a pretty warmblood two weeks off the boat with a very sweet temperament. Dismissed the second as although he had excellent breeding, I thought he was lacking bone and was very upright in the pasterns. Neither were exactly well covered.

Went back to the first and had a feel for a pulse - seemed normal - so perhaps this very placid nature was just her. Her fetlocks felt a little warm - but they all did so I thought that could possibly be due to being in on a warm day. He then popped a saddle on and said 'up you hop'. Must admit, that surprised me - but he was in a rush to get to a show. Surprised me enough that I didn't watch her trot up. B***er.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I loved her. She made me look like an incompetent novice with washing line reins flapping and a somewhat lavatorial seat but I loved her. Our canter was a disaster - wrong leg. Twice. Then she kept going disunited. Fourth time, dealer suggested shortening my reins and using my legs (:o) and she floated. We annihilated the 1' cross pole a couple of times and then flew the 2' 6" upright a couple of times. Wow, what a jump. Should have gone higher but I was conscious of the time. Which is a bad thing.

So, I put a 10% deposit (refundable, with witnessed receipt) down on her and said subject to vet. He told me that she'd been vetted coming off the boat but I told him that after three years of hell, I was doing this for my own peace of mind. He suggested I didn't use a certain vet (ho hum) but was open to all others in the area.

Now here's the niggle. I was watching the videos of our session and have noticed that her off hind rotates slightly inwards when she puts it down in walk. It's not noticeable in trot. R (my previous warmblood acquired by accident) used to do this but in a far more pronounced fashion. On her vet check with her previous owners, it said that this was a common KWPN trait - which was an odd thing to put, I thought. Considering R broke down (actually, she was never really sound from the moment she landed on my doorstep), I am absolutely kicking myself for not requesting she be trotted up now.

Is there anything specific this could indicate that I should ask the vet to check for, please? Having had to PTS my TB due to SI subluxation; I may be being over cautious. But the last horse I had vetted failed on all my extra questions.

The last of the cianti if you got that far. Thank you.
 
Last edited:
Not got any very useful imput but maybe ask dealer to send you a video of horse trotted up?
Saves an extra trip or wasted vetting if there is something your not happy with and shouldn't be to much to ask.

Best of luck whatever you do :)
 
If you've put a deposit on the horse you will only get it back if it fails the vetting, not if you change your mind because of something you've seen in the video. So you will need to weigh up the comparative costs of lost deposit and potentially wasted vetting. I'd just mention the twisting hind leg to the vet and ask him to look particularly carefully at that leg.
There is one vet I won't have on my yard at any price because of the way he treated a horse years ago, so maybe this dealer has had a similar experience.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
If you've put a deposit on the horse you will only get it back if it fails the vetting, not if you change your mind because of something you've seen in the video. So you will need to weigh up the comparative costs of lost deposit and potentially wasted vetting. I'd just mention the twisting hind leg to the vet and ask him to look particularly carefully at that leg.
There is one vet I won't have on my yard at any price because of the way he treated a horse years ago, so maybe this dealer has had a similar experience.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Yes, I realise that - I should not have been so rushed, it's my own silly fault. I shall ask for extra attention and hope that it is merely a lack of muscle or a mild conformation fault.

She has been stabled 24/7 since arriving in this country - it could well have something to do with it.
 
Faracat said:
Talk to the Vet who will do the vetting and tell them your concerns RE that leg.
Click to expand...

Definitely this but I'd take it a stage further and ask him (your own vet if you possibly can - or get recommendations from people on here) to start with that leg and stop immediately if he's not happy.
Then rather than do an hours worth of vetting to fail on something you're querying he can be their ten mins and either save you some cash by stopping early or put your mind at ease.

Will they be keeping her in 24/7 till she's sold? What if she's mental in the field? Did you hack her/ do you want to?
 
Nope, if it's not evenly matched with the other hind's movement it won't be because she has been stabled.

Now to find the best vet to do the vetting! Will you be able to be there at the vetting?
 
Thank you for your comments and helpful suggestions. I am contacting Blaircourt - they are the first on my list, actually. And others have kindly pm'd me a suggestion or two. I will pay heed to the suggestion that the back end is examined first. And this time I will be there.

I took her for a bimble. She was fine. She is hacked daily - apparently - he did say they hadn't met heavy traffic because they didn't have any in the area, although she had seen a tractor or two. She seemed happy - she was enthusiastic and had her ears pricked the whole time. Minimal tail swishing, except when I asked for an awful transition - my fault.

Re the turnout - he says he doesn't because he doesn't want to risk injury. I have the facilities to do a controlled turnout. This won't be the first horse on our yard over from Holland; we have managed well with the others taking them out in hand to start off with and gradually upping the time. I'd do this anyway, the grass is coming through thick and fast and I would need to minimise the risk of grass-induced colic.

I have had three years of hell with lame horses. The vet didn't pick up on my TBs issues which were obviously long-term - but then I didn't specifically ask. I am probably over-sensitive to these things but I was right about the last one and fools rush in and all that.:(
 
Well, lessons learned. If expensive ones. I won't let myself be railroaded into anyone else's agenda again. Before climbing on yourself, always ask for a trot up. Also, always ensure you see the horse ridden before you get on yourself - and as you are the customer, you have every right to ask this.

I raised my concerns with the vet - Mr Appleton from Clarendon Equine, hats off to him and highly recommended by Jools2345. It helped enormously that he events, too, so was very firm. She didn't fail on flexion tests but he was concerned that the hock was bowed and she also had a boxy front foot which he suspected had resulted from compensation for the back foot with the beetle squishing action. He did the full 5 stage with the exception of bloods largely because she did not show a pain response on that leg and he could not be certain until he saw her ridden. So I climbed back on and cantered a gazillion circles on both reins. At the end he offered to check my heart rate too.:o

Whilst he could not 'fail' her outright, he declared her not fit for purpose and ensured my deposit was returned. Which of course must now pay for the vet check. She'd make a nice dressage horse - in a nutshell she has lovely paces, but she would probably breakdown doing a difficult ask on a cross country course at speed.

Cheeky whatsit of a dealer's passing shot was that people looking for cheap horses shouldn't set the criteria for a horse with a £10k price tag. But I guess he was feeling piqued because she wasn't off his books as he had hoped.
 
Hereshoping said:
Cheeky whatsit of a dealer's passing shot was that people looking for cheap horses shouldn't set the criteria for a horse with a £10k price tag. But I guess he was feeling piqued because she wasn't off his books as he had hoped.
Click to expand...

Surely soundness should be a requirement at any price above rock bottom?
 
Oh dear. :( Best to know though, and your instincts were right... Hope the hunt goes well for the next one, and I'm sure that you will take ages trying it this time!
 
Sounds like you had a good vet!
Before I realised vetting had already been done I was going to tell you that I once viewed a horse, absolutely loved him. He was so perfect accept I too noticed a slight deviation on a hind leg. I mentioned it to my vet over the phone and he told me then, walk away. It often means big problems either hock, back or suspensory lig

Pm me what ur looking for. Someone I know but not a friend sells a few quality horses that I see her ride most days.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top