heart murmurs

[franni]

looked at a horse today (to buy) was lovely and would really like to try him again to buy but it was mentioned that on his last vetting (some other ppl were going to buy him) they had found a slight heart murmur. Has anyone else had an experience of this, or knows how serious it is? i am hoping to jrn next year, pc open and work him quite hard! thank you x

 

[franni]

please, anyone?

 

[Guinness]

How old is the horse? We had a couple of foals at work with heart murmurs. The one that was born this year was a grade 4/5 when she was born and is now a grade 2 (she is now 5 months old). We also have a three year old that had a grade 5 when he was a foal and is now barely detectable. Seems like they grow out of it, but I personally wouldnt want to event a horse with a heart murmur-just not worth the risk.

 

[franni]

the horse is 6 (7 next year), i don't know what grade it is though, we will check when we see the vet's report

 

[Guinness]

Well if it still has it at that age I wouldnt go near it. Its not fair to ask a horse with a heart murmur to compete to that level. Im sure there are plenty of fit and healthy horses out there that would suit better.

 

[faerie666]

Really depends on what type of heart murmur it is as some are completely harmless. We had a horse that happily raced point-to-pointing with a grade 4 tricuspid regurge and was placed in his first race. Sadly he broke down very badly and was put down

, but his heart never caused any trouble.
If you really like the horse I'd try to find out more about the murmur, speak to your vet and if he thinks it won't affect him, and make a low offer.

 

[franni]

thank you very much for all of your help - will do

 

[cluedo]

It really depends on the type of murmur and whether it is at rest or after exercise. Most are absolutely harmless at rest and go on exercise and cause absolutely no problems whatsoever. BUT the mere mention of heart murmur send people panicking but it is a common problem and in a huge amount of cases amount to absolutely nothing. So don't panic yet.

 

[AandK]

you really need to speak to the vet about it in more detail to decide.. it is all dependant on the type and severity of the murmur, plenty of horses that have one can go on to do most activities and i expect there are loads out there that have them that go undetected.
Andy failed the vet due to a heart murmur (it was only picked up due to the vet having an electronic stethoscope, couldn't hear it on a normal one) the owners didn't want to pay to have it investigated, they said they would keep him as a hack if they couldn't sell.. i couldn't afford to have it looked at and at first decided to walk away. but i couldn't stop thinking about him and in the end went back to the owner and made him an offer. of course it was a very big risk to take and could have gone horribly wrong.!
5 yrs later he is still fit as a fiddle (he is naturally a fit horse due to being TB), does PN eventing (hopefully Novice next year!) and all RC teams and always recovers really well after the XC..

there was also a horse at college that had a murmur too, she was used for flat and jumping while i was there and she was a very 'enthusiastic' ride.!!

 

[LoneRanger]

Agree with the others, completely depends on the type of heart murmur. I had an eventer with a high grade (i.e. bad) heart murmur. It was so bad the vets always used to bring the students to listen to it. However because of the type of heart murmur it was, it didn't affect his performance. He went intermediate with me and then I retired him and he went hunting until he retired from that. Now aged 23 he's still doing little events, teaching people to ride!

 

[Horsey_Gal]

We bought a 5yo tb mare with a slight heart murmur (not sure what grade) we had her vetted after we bought her, i know it sounds stupid but i absolutely fell in love with her!! we paid £5000 for the mare two years ago .... maybe i was just stupid!!