Heart Murmur - new horse vetting

dressager

dressager

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I have just had a prospective new horse vetted, he is a 4 year old Westphalian gelding who I am hoping to compete in dressage. He passed a 5 stage vetting in Germany when he was imported last year and I had another one done today which he passed, but on both vettings he has been diagnosed with a left side mitral valve heart murmur. The vet today said it is unlikely to be of significance as many horses have them.

However, as he is not exactly cheap, I think it might be wise to investigate further. Does anyone have any experience in what should be done next? The horse is in Essex. My trainer said I should get a heart specialist to check to see whether it is an innocent murmur, plus to check with the insurance company about cover. She gave me the number of a heart specialist but they are in West Sussex.

Any advice welcome! Thanks.
 
My old horse had one when I bought him but when I sold him it had gone. i was told he may have had a virus and its very common not likely to be an issue. Could it be used as leverage in the cost? If you really like him look into it further?

He hunted PN evented and was very fit you would never had known.
 
Get a second opinion, will probably never affect him, and use it to barter the price down! I wouldnt worry if you only want him for dressage.
 
I bought a TB with a minor heart mumur, he went on to event up to BE Novice before retiring with a leg injury. Never seemed to do him any harm. He was bred from racing stock and apparently it's very common.
I would however look into trying to get the cost down.
 
It would cost you about £500 to have it properly checked out. The current owners should reflect this in the price or offer to pay some of the costs really
 
IMO

barge pole springs to mind.....................

to have issue in such a young horse as Boss says owners should offer to pay for further work

as of course if you buy and then try to re-sell will have huge effect on price plus you WILL HAVE AN EXCULSION on your insurance.....
 
My boy has a heart murmour. He was born with it and its been picked up on every vetting since.

He was bought as a dressage schoolmaster for me and we decided to have it investigated as part of the vetting. Boss's figure on that was about right and i believe we paid in the region of 500 pounds for the tests (which were done at a clinic).

His was confirmed to be very mild and hadnt deteriorated at all since his first vetting at 4 (was 12 when we got him). He passed his vetting with flying colours to be used as an affiliated dressage horse (was competing at PSG).

The vets said there was absolutly nothing to worry about with his, but there are different levels of severity and different kinds (the ones that they are born with and dont deteriorate versus the ones that appear and usually do get worse).

Its probably worth getting it checked out if the horse is expensive. For the cost of the tests, im glad we had them done
smile.gif
 
I had a TB vetted a few years ago. He had a heart murmur at rest but it went away after he had been exercised, which is apparently very normal for a TB. The vet wasn't concerned about it.
 
I was helping during vettings with a very very good vet recently and he passed 2 horses with mild murmurs as fit for showjumping, hunting etc. With one, it went away with exercise while the other didnt. Getting a referral vet to look at him if hes quite expensive is worthwhile, however - "cardiac" specialists are thin on the ground. in fact there is only one in Ireland and hes in his 80s!! Just get a good clinic to check him out if you are worried. As the others have stated Id be expecting a substantiall reduction in price.
 
Thank you for all your advice
smile.gif

I will definitely get it checked out before proceeding, plus try and get the price down, or at least get the vets costs covered.

Part of me thought maybe it was best to find another horse, but I feel so mean to reject this one if its nothing much to worry about, I've fallen for him already lol. As the vet said, no horse is perfect and they can develop things at any time. This horse is a real sweetie! He has such a nice temperament and is so laid back for a youngster.
 
My Friends endurance horse has a heart murmorm, he competes at advanced level endurance so it can't affect him that much!!

Apparently it is quite common in horses and rarely anything to worry about.

Worth phoning and chatting to another vet re second opinion if you are worried.

Def use it as a bargaining tool!!
 
Oh, should add - last summer a top endurance rider had to retire her best horse due to a heart murmur. he completed a competition 2 weeks previously with the best HR and was pulled mid way though his next competition as developed a heart murmur (flutter) when vetted at the gate halfway through.
 
Apparently quite a lot of TBs have heart murmurs and in about 10% of cases does it affect performance. If vets have passed your horse twice, I doubt it's of any concern, especially since vets seem to be overly cautious these days when vetting horses for purchase!!
 
my horse has a heart murmer, it is low grade and it does not affect us at all. We bomb around, do x, sj sponsored rides etc with no worries, I would however try to get some money off for it though. Good luck
xx
 
The owner is getting a specialist to come check it out, ECG etc this Friday, hoorah! He sounds confident that it shouldn't affect the horse's performance or the insurance. I will just be glad to have something down on paper really.
 
you need to find out whether it is worse with work, or better, (the latter is obviously preferable!) and whether it is regular-irregular (which is okay) or irregular-irregular, which is less so. any regular experienced equine vet can answer those questions after listening to its heart, you won't need a specialist for that.
my vet passed my old lad at 5 with a regular-irregular heartbeat, 5 star vetting, the horse went on to event to 2* level, never had a problem at all.
 
A lady called Leslie Young came from Newmarket, she does the racehorses and has about 30 letters after her name (wow that's more letters than an alphabet) She said he should be fine for what I want him for and has written a detailed report. His heart basically compensates perfectly well, she measured him before, during and after about 20 minutes of hard exercise.

IF I was to sell him on I could have another heart check done and (hopefully) be able to show that there has been no deterioration in his heart whilst I've had him, as she thinks its highly unlikely there will be.

There is likely to be some exclusions on his insurance so am just doing a bit of research to see who provides the best cover.

But that is a relief. Two five stage vettings and a specialist have all passed him so I am happy with that. Just need to arrange transport and we should have him soon, at last!
 
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