Flexion Tests - What would you do?

[kibob]

One of my liveries has been looking for a pony for her younger sister. They found a suitable mare by word-of-mouth and have had her at my yard on trial for the last week.

The mare has been great and is perfect in every way. However, she has today failed the vetting due to a slight lameness in trot evident following a flexion test. It was not determined which joint was causing the problem but was thought to probably be the hock. The vetting continued and she was ridden and galloped and then rested. She was then re-tested and was a little worse.

The pony shows no sign of discomfort in any of her work - jumps like a stag, no hesitations, happy to school etc. The owners say they have never had a problem and she has always been sound.

Now I've always thought the flexion test is a strange one

. I'm sure if someone held my leg for 1-2mins and asked me to run I would hobble a little but would like to think I had a good few years of "usefullness" left in me lol. I have known a horse who failed under very similar circumstances and they went ahead with the purchase, the mare has never had any problems during an active 7 year ownership.

I would be interested to hear your views as to whether you would continue and buy the mare or run a mile. She is 10 year old and will be used for all ponyclub activites. Thankies

 

[pixie]

A failed flexion test wouldn't bother me

 

[dieseldog]

Run a mile. First of all if it didn't work out they won't be able to sell the pony as it will never pass a vet and secondly you only have to read all the posts about Spavins to know not to touch it.

 

[Shilasdair]

I bought my mare with a bone spavin when she was 4...now 18 and it hasn't caused her any lameness.
No horse is perfect...I'd look at the overall picture...price, temperament, etc...then decide
S

 

[virtual]

I was talking to a vet about flexion tests yesterday (we had a 3hr round trip to have a horse vetted, so thought I may aswell learn a bit!) - he said if the horse was young, and significantly worse on one leg than the other three he'd advise against buying it - it's likely to indicate problems in a few year's time. Whereas if the horse was older, only slightly lame after flexions on more than one leg, it wouldn't worry him at all, infact he'd expect it.

DieselDog is right though, you could have problems selling the horse on. My decision would also depend on how much work I was expecting the horse to do (now and in the future).

 

[mickey]

As an owner of a horse that has spavin - I have gone through a heck of a lot to get him stabilised and up to proper work. It has required patience and veterinary input. And I am lucky that he is OK now.
I would never consider buying a horse/pony that failed flexion tests. It could well be the first sign of problems that could be tricky to overcome.

 

[Louby]

I bought my horse 4 yrs ago after failing badly on a flexion test (leftfore). We walked away, couldnt get him out of my mind and went back and bought him. Id viewed loads of horses and he was the one!, I just had to have him. He was £2k, any more and I wouldnt have took the chance. He's now 8 yrs old and has had no problems at all in that leg, touching wood apart from fracturing it but that was an accident.
Really I shouldnt have bothered paying for a vet if I wasnt going to take there advice but my heart ruled my head and thankfully its been fine.

 

[WFL]

I had a horse vetted 3 years ago and the vet repeated the flexion test 5 times with me trotting him off each time. The yard manager was standing behind her stifling a laugh.

She later told me that he had failed the horse the 1st time, but was admiring my "posterior" on the other 4 times as he is gay...

 

[Gentle_Warrior]

Mine failed 5 star on flexion, new he wold - still bought him, new him 3 years before buying.

 

[xp0u4076]

Flexion tests are a bit of a funny one, you can make almost any horse lame if you hold their leg tight enough.
If the pony's price reflected the 'failed' vetting I would prob take it. By the age of 10 you have to expect some wear and tear and as long as it wasnt intended for high level jumping/eventing wouldnt worry me too much.

 

[Spotonforgold]

I've had my 14.1hh pony for about 11 years, previously I did pony club and BSJA on her so we were jumping up to 3ft6. Never had any problems with her(touchwood). I sold her about 4 years ago to a young child who then said that we had sold her with problems even though she had passed her vetting with flying colours. She apparently was diagnosed with navicular but no xray evidence or proof was ever given to us. 18months later i had her re-vetted to buy her back, she failed her flexion test. I bought her back regardless, brought her back into full work and (touchwood again) have never had any problems since. She is in full work and regularly jumping still.
I think you have a tough decision to make horses are all different I was lucky in the fact I knew the pony I was buying back.

 

[only_me]

get the horse- if it fails the flexion test it may pass with another vet! try a second opinion, as my friends horse failed its flexion test for the 1st vet but passed with the 2nd! she events it and is totally sound

 

[kibob]

thanks to everyone for your replies (it's taken me soooo long to get on here to thank you all, just hope I manage to post this

). I will pass on your advice. It's a tough one isn't it ......the pony is great in every way and comes well recommended. I agree that if they do buy her, this should be reflected in the price, she is pretty expensive so I think they will need quite a bit knocked off. They have a few more days before decision time ..... might try a few flexion tests and see if there is any difference. Thanks again

 

[merlinsquest]

To be honest I am not sure how much credence I would give to the results of a flexion test....

My kids pony who we had had for a few trouble free years failed big time, hardly able to put his foot to the ground for at least 10 strides.... he was sold and has never been lame.

On the other hand my horse who passed his flexion tests with flying colours, (and still does mostly) has massive arthritic changes within the fetlock and by the end of the year will have cost the insurance company 5k in vet bills!!! He has also never been lame!!!

As said before, if you held most horses/peoples legs up long and high enough they would be lame!!

Good luck and I would probably still go ahead with purchase, but maybe have some basic xrays on the suspect joint to help decision.

 

[MagicMelon]

Flexion test are dreadful! Im sorry but I think they're a joke!

One of my horses who I was selling was vetted. He failed the flexion test which was mortifying as this horse had never been lame and competed most weekends at BSJA and ODE's etc.! I lost my sale because of it. I was so peed off that I got my own vet out the very same day to do a flexion test and see if he could find any problems - nope, he would have passed him. I would ignore it, if you know the horse has been out competing etc. then I wouldnt worry.

 

[truffles]

[ QUOTE ]
A failed flexion test wouldn't bother me

[/ QUOTE ]

Neither - I bought a horse who failed a flexion test, was told not to buy her by two vets, still did

we had some problems of lameness but that was because of her crappy shoeing before hand, NOT the flexion test!
she passed the flexion test a month later under the eye of a very scrutinizing vet!

 

[kibob]

Thanks again everyone. Just been riding out alongside this little mare and she marches along no problems whatsoever. The owners are adamant they have never had a problem and have even offered to extend the trial period for another 2 weeks and will then pay for a second vetting - can't say fairer than that can you really