Failing a flexion test

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liona123

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Would you buy a horse if he failed his flexion test on a hind leg? We know one which has failed on this, he is 12yrs old, been sound as a bell for 4 years and passed the first trot up and lunging on a hard surface. He has done quite a lot (pony club, riding club, BE, BD etc) and he is quite expensive, but perfect in every other way! The seller's vet came to see him 48hrs later and he was way better......
 
Yes I would.
That said, check you can insure him adequately if he has failed the vetting, as there maybe exclusion's to his cover.
 
If I really liked it and it was expensive I would go for a 2nd vetting and poss xrays. The outcome would determine how much money I would be prepared to risk on purchasing it!
 
Yes I would, depending to some extent on what you would be doing with the horse.

I bought one a few years ago for my husband to hack out on - the horse had failed a flexion test on a hind, but the vet actually advised us not to worry about it, we renegotiated the price, and never had any problems with the horse, and no problems selling him a few years later.
 
pastie2 said:
I hate flexion tests with a passion. I wouldnt allow a vet to do it to a horse of mine, its a case of "lets see if we can make this horse lame". I really dont see what they achieve.
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I agree with Pastie - lots of horses which appear sound will trot up lame after a flexion test. In fact hold your own leg up at the back for 30 seconds, then let it down and try to run immediately afterwards - it's painful and the first few steps hurt like hell. A flexion test is designed to bend every joint in the horses leg. To then ask them to trot up sound is a big ask.
 
Holly Hocks said:
I agree with Pastie - lots of horses which appear sound will trot up lame after a flexion test. In fact hold your own leg up at the back for 30 seconds, then let it down and try to run immediately afterwards - it's painful and the first few steps hurt like hell. A flexion test is designed to bend every joint in the horses leg. To then ask them to trot up sound is a big ask.
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agree with this, esp on a 12yr old horse
 
Can't advise whether to buy this horse or not. However thought this might be helpful. When we recently had a horse vetted the vet said that when flexion tested they expect that alot of horses will not be a hundered percent sound after and that this is not a problem and nor will it have "failed" the flexion test. What is a problem is if the amount of lameness after the flexion test is not the same on each leg, so eg if the horse trotted up uneven for 8 strides when flexion tested on near fore, off hind and near hind but trotted up lame for 18 strides on off fore. This is what would cause the horse to "fail" the flexion test and perhaps be an indication that there was a cause for concern. This said we bought one that was slightly more unsound on one that the other three after flexion tests because it was sound on every other test and this was the right decision for us. Hope this helps you with your difficult decision :)
 
Would depend on whether the vet thought there was a sinister reason for the lameness and how many lame strides the horse did. Flexions are very strange to be honest as some vets do no allow for any lame strides and will 'fail' the horse whilst others are a bit more lenient. There is no consistency. IF there is an obvious reason for the lameness then sure i'd want to know more but if I knew the horse and its history and that it hadn't been lame then, seeing that it's 12 it wouldn't worry me too much. A sound horse at a vetting can go lame further down the line after all.

If the horse was everything I wanted I don't think I'd worry too much. My sisters first horse didn't pass his flexion (our vet did it twice) but yet in the years we had him he was never lame (well other than the odd bruised sole/foot abscess).
 
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