Thoughts on website for vettings ??

[Ridergal]

How many of you have been to check and horse that may have been on sale/advertised for a while. To find out it had been vetted by prospective buyers on numerous occasions.

Obviously it is the buyers choice (and in my opinion essential) that every prospective purchase is vetted thoroughly. But wouldn't it be good if there were some sort of official website that detailed if a horse had been previously vetted, when and whether it had passed or not.

Then prospective buyers could pay a small fee for the basic information. Passed vetting on X date, Failed on X date - basic failure e.g. flexion tests. I am not proposing that the full details of the vetting test were available just pass/fail basic information.

For an advanced report "Sellers" could also include info like all jabs up to date, passport checked and OK.

Thoughts ??

 

[be positive]

The problem is that often horses are not failed as such but found at that moment in time to be not fit for purpose, I recently had one "fail", the vet found numerous issues, most of which were either speculation or even incorrect, she missed finding his vaccination dates so stated he was not covered for flu or tet, totally wrong but it was her opinion. The horse has now been thoroughly checked by my vet, had xrays and apart from a very slight lameness, which is undergoing treatment, nothing was found, yet she told the purchaser he had arthritis in his knees, hocks, fetlocks and spine, there was no clinical evidence to support this theory but the horse was totally written off.
Luckily there are several people still interested, they have had full disclosure of what went on in that vetting, will have access to my vets findings and can have their own vetting if they decide to go ahead, any buyer can and should see the passport when viewing, they can ask for any history or exclusions on insurance to be made available before agreeing to purchase.

 

[be positive]

Just to add that client confidentiality comes into this not many sellers would want their details on a website, if the horse passes it will usually be sold, if it fails that is actually a contract between the purchaser and vet nothing is available to the seller unless the purchaser gives authority to the vet to release the information, therefore it would not be possible for the seller to publish any findings unless they pay for a vetting themselves, which dealers sometimes do.

 

[Ridergal]

Just to add that client confidentiality comes into this not many sellers would want their details on a website, if the horse passes it will usually be sold, if it fails that is actually a contract between the purchaser and vet nothing is available to the seller unless the purchaser gives authority to the vet to release the information, therefore it would not be possible for the seller to publish any findings unless they pay for a vetting themselves, which dealers sometimes do.

I agree with everything you say - so perhaps it wouldn't work in theory. As some vets may pass something/some may not. Often it appears more an exercise in protecting reputations - than looking at individual cases. I have had close friends buy something that failed a flexion test - to then hunt/event their buy for many years without any issues. I was thinking more from the Dealers point of view. I agree good dealers would potentially vet anything they bought to sell on, some would every have X Rays. Then others would have a succession of buyers Vet something because they fell in love on a web site. Knowing almost always it would fail.

A way to query successive vettings would be good - then I guess it comes down to Caveat Emptor.