Dealers who have their horses vetted before importing?

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Ahrena

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Just a quick question...

I'm traveling up to Westhoughton today to look at a bunch of horses which have recently, been imported from Holland and Germany. The person selling them has an excellent reputation (my online searches have turned up 100% postive)

they were vetted last week before thry were imported and the sale includes the vet report. If you were buying 1 of these horse's, would you vet it anyway?

When I asked just generally how it works, she said she does it
because there's no point her bringing a horse to the UK if it won't pass the vet, which makes sense. She also said it's done in English
format which insurance companies over here accept, and she mentioned NFU happily accept it (incidentally that's who I use).

Only 1 had x-rays taken, which is unfortunately a horse I'm probably
not interested in as it's £2000 more than the rest, which seems fair as it jumps a good 50cm above the fence is loose jumping over
(which is already a good 1.40cm or so) but as I event i don't need a horse that jumps /that/ big.


They are all 4 year olds who have just been sat on a couple of times btw, so basically done nothing

I think my main concern is when I posted about having a horse revetted, someone said abroad they don't do flexion tests, which is all fine, BUT the horse I was interested in failed twice on flexion tests, so concerns me that i would of bought him if they hadn't done flexions, when it's showed there is a possible problem. Will obviously ask this when i get there, but was just wondering about thoughts?
 
I recently had a horse vetted that had come from Ireland to a dealer. I was told they have to pass a two stage vetting to go abroad. I opted to have it 2 stage vetted anyway and the vet picked up on a sarcoid that had been missed from the original vetting, and the vet felt that the sarcoid had not appeared in the space of a week. This was horse was sold by a reputable dealer who sadly wouldn't budge on price so in the end I didn't buy the horse - waste of my time and money! But in my experience certainly have the horse vetted.
 
I'd get my own vetting done. I also wouldn't assume that clean online searches mean a dealer is whiter than white, nowadays people are unwilling to publicly post negative views & experiences for fear of getting in trouble & likewise lot of forums will delete such thread. I'm not saying this is the case with the place you're going because I don't have a clue who you're talking about!
 
My mare was brought over from Ireland by a dealer and was vetted before coming over but we still got our own 5* vetting done before we bought her as we didn't want to risk it. If it was me I would get the horse vetted and be there for it so I knew exactly what happened :)
 
Thank you :) just confirming my thoughts. Havn't looked at horses that have already been vetted so not sure what the done thing is.

I understand not wanting to disclose negatives, but there weren't even any I'll pm you's ;-) but as always, Will go in with eyes wide open and will def vet :)

thank you!
 
Yes I would get the horse re-vetted regardless. I know of a horse bought from a reputable dealer in UK who had been imported from Europe and vetted prior to import. Horse was not re-vetted prior to purchase from the dealer despite it having a substantial price tag as both buyer and insurance company (NFU) were happy to accept the report, which was in English and carried out by an English vet who living over there. Horse had a blue tinge to it's eyes which was noted on the vetting report with the comment that this was felt to be no issue, horse was fit for purpose required and that sire of said horse had the same and it was just a genetic quirk and several of his offspring had the same blue tinge to their eyes. Cut a long story short, horse is 100% blind in one eye and has less than 30% vision in the other! Makes you wonder how many other blind offspring that sire was producing since the "genetic quirk" was in fact congential cataracts and was clearly being passed on to his stock!
 
1Anastasia said:
Yes I would get the horse re-vetted regardless. I know of a horse bought from a reputable dealer in UK who had been imported from Europe and vetted prior to import. Horse was not re-vetted prior to purchase from the dealer despite it having a substantial price tag as both buyer and insurance company (NFU) were happy to accept the report, which was in English and carried out by an English vet who living over there. Horse had a blue tinge to it's eyes which was noted on the vetting report with the comment that this was felt to be no issue, horse was fit for purpose required and that sire of said horse had the same and it was just a genetic quirk and several of his offspring had the same blue tinge to their eyes. Cut a long story short, horse is 100% blind in one eye and has less than 30% vision in the other! Makes you wonder how many other blind offspring that sire was producing since the "genetic quirk" was in fact congential cataracts and was clearly being passed on to his stock!
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:o that's awful!

I am def going to vet, knew its the sensible thing to do but guess I was kind of hoping everyone would say no its fine :P as I am SO sick of horse shopping I just want it DONE but hey go, better to wait than get a horse with a problem :)
 
It would depend on what vetting is done as to flexion tests being done. when I have had horses vetted in Germany they have had flexion tests done but I would agree with you getting your own vetting done just in case
 
A vetting is only good on the day it was done, a lot can happen during transit if coming over from the continent or ireland, if i was paying decent bucks, id get a vetting done with a vet of my choice.
 
I'd do my own vetting.

I don't have much use for flexion tests though- they can be useful but it really depends on the vet doing them.
 
Nari said:
I'd get my own vetting done. I also wouldn't assume that clean online searches mean a dealer is whiter than white, nowadays people are unwilling to publicly post negative views & experiences for fear of getting in trouble & likewise lot of forums will delete such thread. I'm not saying this is the case with the place you're going because I don't have a clue who you're talking about!
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Totally agree Nari. I know of a couple of dealers who if you google them their searches come up saying they are absolutely wonderful. I know very different, one of them I have had a very sad experience with. It is a pity there is not a Trip Advisor for reading up about horse dealers as it is an absolute nightmare trying to buy a good honest horse from a good honest dealer.
 
Ahrena said:
Thank you :) just confirming my thoughts. Havn't looked at horses that have already been vetted so not sure what the done thing is.

I understand not wanting to disclose negatives, but there weren't even any I'll pm you's ;-) but as always, Will go in with eyes wide open and will def vet :)

thank you!
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Incidentially OP I have heard from a well known trainer that x rays that come over with foreign horses have sometimes been swapped over. Usually by the agent buying the horse in for the owner. They have a system in Holland ( Im sure you know this) that X Ray1. is excellent 2. is OK 3. is a definate no no. The particular horse had a no no x ray but it was swapped for a Grade 1 x ray. This horse had been sold for a lot of money and as you can imagine there was a great deal of trouble when said horse went lame and x rays were found to not belong to the horse.
 
Ahrena said:
:o that's awful!

I am def going to vet, knew its the sensible thing to do but guess I was kind of hoping everyone would say no its fine :P as I am SO sick of horse shopping I just want it DONE but hey go, better to wait than get a horse with a problem :)
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Make sure you have blood pulled.
 
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