Failed Vetting - What would you do?

3Beasties

3Beasties

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Do I go with my head or my heart?

5 year old ISH failed her 5 stage vetting today on flexion of her off fore, she wasn't hopping lame but was head nodding. No better/worse after exercise.

No other issues but vet seemed quite negative about it and was concerned as to how hard she's been hunted in Ireland (think she did a season out there?).

I really like her, she's a far nicer horse then I ever thought I'd find but maybe she's just too nice for me and it's not meant to be. What would you do??
 
As she is young, is it worth re-negotiating the price to take into account the failed vetting, then get her home and turn her out til next spring?

Depends what you want to do I guess, but if you have winter 24/7 turnout available then I would take a punt.
 
Go with your gut instinct.. When I bought my youngster the minute I saw the advert I had decided he was coming home with me, and nothing was going to get in the way of that.. I went up to see him, noticed he was quite toed out but still bought him and he's one of the best things I ever did :D Good luck, only you can decide!
 
If you really like her, why not spend some extra money and get x rays done to find out whats really wrong, and then go from there.
 
Walk away. a 5yr old shouldn't be failing flexions. the fact three legs were fine and one dodgy screams future problem to me..
 
If you like her see of you can get the price reduced then get X-rays.......one of my old vets said to me that if he flexioned tested 30 horses nearly all of them will come up lame in one or more legs but still be able to do his/her job.
 
If she was hunted in ireland she was probably wrecked, those boys don't mess around. Just look at the photos of hunters on Done Deal to see what way they hunt their horses.
 
Said horse is only 5, failing on flexion, plus vet having other concerns-plenty of other, healthy youngsters out there. Walk away!
 
Give her a week and then re vet, horses can knock their legs and have bruising so fail flexions on this. I had a 5 yr old fail two vettings but have completely clear scans and xrays, two weeks later he was fine and assed flexion all round. We think he had just knocked himself.
 
My just back then 4 yr old failed miserably on a left fore flexion, I walked away but went back and bought a few weeks later. He had done nothing, I took the risk and he is 13 now with no (touch wood) issues. I would hmmmm about a young horse who had posibly hunted hard for a season. Would the buyers consider paying for xrays??? If not, maybe they know something and walking away would be the right thing to do.
 
Flexion tests are notoriously unreliable. Goodness knows why they are still included in vettings. If you really like her negotiate the cost of x-rays and tendon scans off her price and if those are clear, buy her. If she's cheap buy her anyway.
 
SusieT said:
Walk away. a 5yr old shouldn't be failing flexions. the fact three legs were fine and one dodgy screams future problem to me..
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This, definitely. You won't be able to insure that leg. You will always be worrying.

stolensilver said:
Flexion tests are notoriously unreliable. Goodness knows why they are still included in vettings.
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I've never had a horse fail a flexion when I have bought or sold*. I have, however, had two "navicular" horses which were not noticeably lame on a straight line fall flat on their faces after front flexions. That's why they are still used in vettings. They may give some false positives but they give plenty of correct ones that show that the horse has a problem.

If you really like her negotiate the cost of x-rays and tendon scans off her price and if those are clear, buy her. If she's cheap buy her anyway.
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If you do this bear in mind that soft tissue injuries inside the foot will not show on either xrays or scans and are very difficult to resolve with shoes on, with a failure rate of around 80% with conventional treatments.



*sorry, not true, just remembered that one failed on a front flexion due to a pulled shoulder muscle that revetted sound after a couple of weeks rest. If you really like the horse it would be worth a retest of that one leg, plus bloods on the day of course, after a rest.
 
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I have a horse who failed a flexion at 5, never been lame on that leg in the 6 years I've had him.

I really don't like flexion tests and think a lot of horses come up lame that will probably have no problems.
 
cptrayes said:
If you do this bear in mind that soft tissue injuries inside the foot will not show on either xrays or scans and are very difficult to resolve with shoes on, with a failure rate of around 80% with conventional treatments.
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Where have you got this figure from? It doesn't fit with any information I've had from vets having had more experience than I'd like in this area as I've had a horse who suffered from a damaged collateral ligament in her foot. The recovery rate is very high and the sustained soundness rate is excellent. I'd much rather look at a horse who had had this injury than one that had had suspensory damage.

My views on flexion tests are based on veterinary literature. They are unreliable.
 
stolensilver said:
Flexion tests are notoriously unreliable. Goodness knows why they are still included in vettings. If you really like her negotiate the cost of x-rays and tendon scans off her price and if those are clear, buy her. If she's cheap buy her anyway.
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Totally agree.....my best ever horse failed a flexion test.
The ARE unreliable and TBH if someone over stretched one of my muscles/ligaments/tendons, I would be hopping for a while too....and there is bugger all wrong with my soundness!
 
stolensilver said:
Flexion tests are notoriously unreliable. Goodness knows why they are still included in vettings. If you really like her negotiate the cost of x-rays and tendon scans off her price and if those are clear, buy her. If she's cheap buy her anyway.
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Agree re flexion tests. I've seen horses fail one day and pass the next.

My old boy failed a hind flexion test, he had a negative scan so I bought him anyway. Never had a problem with that leg in all the years i had him.
 
Many years ago a home bred 5 year old was being sold for local working hunter classes but was failed by a local vet on front flexion test. As we had never had a days lameness we had the horse x rayed ourselves and he was absolutley fine.

We eventually sold him to a top W. European country to go 3 day eventing. He passed thier own vet with flying colours including x rays of everything! He subsequently 3 day evented and was long listed for his country for the Olympics having meanwhile been bought by the said country's national federation and vetted again!!

Moral - a flexion test is only an indicator and is never conclusive in its own right. If that is the only thing your vet is worried about then ask the vendors if they will reduce the price by the cost of the X rays and if all is then well go ahead.
 
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