Personally no, apart from anything else I know too many incidents where horses have broken down only weeks or months after a 5 stage vetting and so they seem (to me) to be a waste of money. I certainly wouldn't pay to have another one done if the previous one is recent/legitimate.
Yes - I know of someone who bought a horse off someone else's vetting and it hasn't been sound for more than a 3 month period in the 2 seasons he's had it.
yes the vetting is for the day in question that the vet see's the horse. also you don't know if the horse has any underlying problems since the vetting
It may also be a requirement of your insurance company - Petplan insist on one for a horse valued over 3k but NFU its 5k (Ithink) - so worth checking with insurance company. But as the other have said a vetting is only good for the day it is done and can only pick up exisiting conditions and/or previous injuries/conditions.
Yes...I nearly bought off a previous vetting (done 2 weeks before I saw the horse) but something nagged at me to have it vetted and it failed in work on cicles, was short in one hind leg so walked away. As it happens I bought a horse who flew throught the vetting and I have had 9 months of injuries so it doesn't mean you won't have issues!!!
The two horses I've had have both had issues that wouldn't have shown up on a vetting (unless included scans, etc., which would have shown Dizzy's pelvis problem).