Vetting - lungeing on uneven stoney ground?

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Hutchlou

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Is it usual for a vet to ask for a horse to be lunged on slopey, uneven, very stoney ground in 10m circles & expect it to come up sound?!!! Clearly horse failed & I'm utterly annoyed & gutted. :(
 
It is entirely normal for them to have the horse lunged on a 10 metre circle - was this the only place available or did the vet make a specific request for this area in preference of flat, even ground?

If no other option then not really the vets fault.
 
Were you watching the vetting, are you sure that is what the surface was like - is this because it was the only area available ?

They usually want to see it lunged in a school, and then on something very firm, like concrete, which makes me cringe, because I expect them to slip over and hurt themselves.
 
Hutchlou said:
Is it usual for a vet to ask for a horse to be lunged on slopey, uneven, very stoney ground in 10m circles & expect it to come up sound?!!! Clearly horse failed & I'm utterly annoyed & gutted. :(
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Its unfortunate but depends on what facilities you have. Our yard is much the same. Pot holes and gravel. I generally have to lunge briefly on that for vets, farriers and pyhsio's, unless we go to the paddock.
 
He was lunged in the sand school & trotted up perfectly sound on the concrete straight outside the stables. There is no flat hard ground big enough to lunge on though, unless he had gone into a field & they are fairly slopey & full of rabbit holes! Really frustrated though, as what is the point of doing it on unsuitable ground?! Surely all horses would fail? :(
 
I had my horse's vetting 'paused' at that stage too.....he flew through everything else & because he was young they carried on the rest of the vetting (which he passed) The people chose not to buy him, but I was pretty cross as the car park where we lunged was on a slope and has big flinty stones on it. Most of our horses flinch walking across it on a normal day! i did state my case for not lungeing there, but that's how it goes I guess..... :(
I still have him, but he's never been lame a day!
 
As has already said yes if there was no-where else available.

When my mare was vetted her flexion tests were done trotting up the lane and she was lunged on the lane / in a gateway as the owner had no where else else suitable.

I do not have any large concrete areas myself and when I doubted my geldings soundness lunged him at the end of a cul-de-sac (everyone knows me as my field is next door)
 
They need to be vetted on hard ground aswell as a school, just like when your riding on roads/hard ground you wouldnt expect 10mins of trot work on a road for the horse to be lame.
 
Yes it is normal but you can refuse. When i sold my last horse 3 years ago he was vetted lunged on a stoney surface it lamed him and he had a bruised sole he was out of work for 10 days and cost me vet bills and more livery and it was a desperate sale due to divorce. When he came right and we re advertised ect when he was vetted again i refused to do it on the same surface and there was no where else bar the school i said in there or no where. Vet completly understood he passed and the people bought. I would not let anybody do it to my horse again after that.
 
Ditto Zoe above - yard I work at has been careful to make sure the potential buyers are very aware of what they ask their own vet to do etc ever since some people buying a recently backed, relatively unschooled horse who they knew they were going to have to do a lot of work with/take very slowly/be v sympathetic with had a 5 Stage done - and it got to the stage of going round and round at speed for a while and person riding the horse for the vetting had to say look, the horse isn't ready to do this many laps of this size and surface arena at this pace, it's not educated or balanced enough and is going to do more harm than good. In the end the buyers bought the horse, but the vet was quite heavily on the side of reccomending them not to, for no reason other than the natural weakness of an uneducated immature horse and the unwillingness of the rider to break it's leg.

On the other side of the coin, have a vetting scheduled soon where the vet has said they understand it's a young horse that isn't aimied for Badminton one day etc so will do the 5 stage, but will exercise common sense based on the horses age and the fact some our facilities to do a performance work up are out of use at the moment. Least that way vet, owner and buyer all know where they stand well before the day it actually happens.

Out of interest, OP are you the seller or the buyer? I presumed seller but guess I may be wrong!
 
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