WWYD? Vetting

montanna

montanna

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Horse in question is 3yrs old and unfit as she has done no more than a bit of long reining and light lunging. Was chased round and round with a whip on the lunge and found to have an irregular heartbeat after this I feel, excessive, extensive exercise, fine at rest, and returns to normal after 30 seconds to 1 minute. Would you be worried?
 
I'd want it further investigated. Excersise (even 'excessive') shouldn't make the heart irregular. The reason they do work them 'excessively' is because heart conditions don't show at lower levels.

It also depends what the horse is for. Happy hacking, bit of RC or dressage is fine. Endurance or eventing means they MUST have a good healthy heart.
 
Question 1. Why an earth would you chase "round and round"?
Question 2. Was this part of the vetting? If so did the vet explain their reasoning? Imo get a different vet to do the vetting again.
Personally i wouldn't make a full judgement until i'd had the second vetting.
 
Sorry to hear this - my first thoughts..... did you discuss this with the vet when you were there? Also, the fact you are asking opinions would indicate there is some doubt in your mind - would it always be at the back of your mind even if she was revetted and passed?
 
nix the idea is to raise the heart rate, to show irregularaties.
The owner would be the one that was handling the horse.
Irregularaties can lead to a horse dropping dead on you, as the blood isnt pumping cleanly through the heart....same as with people, they can have heart attacks, etc
Horses hearts are designed to beat fast, then drop back fast and it is that window that they need to listen on, before its back to normal
The best person to advise you would be the vet, in relation to what problems it could cause, and if it would affect suitability of what you want the horse for.
 
nix123 said:
Question 1. Why an earth would you chase "round and round"?
Question 2. Was this part of the vetting? If so did the vet explain their reasoning? Imo get a different vet to do the vetting again.
Personally i wouldn't make a full judgement until i'd had the second vetting.
Click to expand...

She'll have been 'chased round and round' to get her heart rate up as well as checking lameness after harder work. There's a limit to methods available when unbroken!

And yes, it's a common part of an extended 2-stage vetting. 5 stage isn't possible on a youngster as they can't be ridden but a halfway between a 2 and a 5 stage is to work them hard whilst loose/on the lunge.
 
Apologies for my somewhat garbled first post! I understand that the heart rate needs to be up when vetting normally. Just wondering if it would have made any difference that the horse was wholly unfit and then cantered continuously, what I feel excessive for her, not excessive in general, as a three year old, having not done anything like that previously... probably very stressed by being chased around- could this have been a possible reason for the irregularity?

Horse would be to jump. Problem is vet wants to take horse for further investigation - including more chasing etc which I am not happy with as I feel it could be a possible reason perhaps?
 
The horse won't pass unless the vet is happy with the heart but if you are happy to start out with a three year old with what is possibly dangerous and serious issue then proceed without the vetting
Raising a horses heart rate won't cause a problem but it will flag up an issue the hose has .
The next step I would want to take would be an ECG to try to try to identify better the type of issue that's there and work out if it's significant or not.
I have a horse here who had a serious heart problem found at his vetting ( he was given to me ) it took over a year and a lot of money and work to get him right I would not have been happy if I had paid for him .
The vendor ought to have taught the horse to lunge so the vetting could have been done easily.
They have to exercise them enough to get the effect they need so what ever you do the horse has be under some ' exercise stress ' at a vetting.
 
no-HR should not have been irregular just because of stress/abnormal exercise. suggests underlying problem-go for further investigation . may be nothing may be something. are you the seller? normal for young horses (or even ridden) to be lunged at canter.
 
Pretty much as others have already said - it's surely not normal for the heartbeat to be irregular even after excessive exercise.

And was it even excessive? Think how much youngsters run and play. Even if the horse's stress levels were up in this case due to being chased round and round, that really shouldn't bring on irregularites.

Think I'd walk away from this one.
 
I'm with everyone else. Normally exercise should not make a horse have an irregular rhythm. Your vet is right to want further investigations. Heart problems are complicated and range from the 'ignore it, all will be fine' to the catastrophic. Either walk away or discuss with the owner is he/she is willing to pay for further investigations.
 
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