Conference noted::equitation

    I think I paid $60 for a pre-purchase exam and about $150 for
    a soundness exam with xrays.  Pre-purchase checks for general 
    health only.
    
    Most vets like to do these exams on the farm because they like
    to see the horse in it's "home" surroundings.  You can tell a
    lot about a horse just standing in it's stall and by what it's
    fed.  Plus a trailering is stressful for a lot of horses. They
    tend to come off a trailer a bit stiff and this may affect a
    soundness exam.
    
    On a jumper I defintely get xrays from the knee down on all 4 legs.
    If I'm buying a horse from someone I don't know (or trust) I also
    ask for a drug screen (from a blood sample) - AND I never tell the
    seller I'm going to do this.  There is nothing more disapointing
    than buying the "perfect" horse and having it turn into a raving
    maniac at home because it has been tranquilized.
    
  
    
    

    Nancy,
    
       Dr. Maureen Long in Andover travels to Derry, hospital is 508
    682-9905 to schedule an appointment, ask for costs, etc.  There are
    many Vets in the area for equine questions/cost for soundness.  You
    should ask the owner who their present vet is so you can speak to
    him/her and then call another to vet check.  I visited a horse which
    was advertised here in the notes file.  They said the horse was 15 yrs.
    old and in excellent condition.  I drove to Maine to see the horse
    which was half starved to death, had lice and when I called the vet
    which the owner recommended I do (I don't think she thought I would
    actually do it), the vet said the horse was 22+ years in age and his
    teeth were in terrible non repairable condition.  She thought I would
    only be putting it out to pasture, not riding him.  Wow, what
    deceit...thank goodness for honest vets.
    My two cents is ... always call the present vet and ask pertinent
    questions to what you want to use the horse for.
    
    Ester

            You could call Brad Barnes.  He has been our Vet for
    years and I think is very good at his trade.  Honest and cares
    about the animals that he works on.  His number is 603-362-5709.
    
                Bob
    
    P.S. He is also very close to Derry......

    While looking for a horse, I had the pleasure of
    seeing many "Excellent", "Sound", etc. horses that,
    thank goodness for a vet check, saved me a lot of grief,
    money and time.  Back then, I didn't have enough "horse sense"
    to know what to look for.  Find out who the vet is, talk to
    them about horse, and use another vet for vet check.
    
    1)  Look over stall. See if any obvious new chewing is present, 
        marks on wall from kicking?  Look at horse in stall, does it 
        pace, crib, or weave in place?  Is a crib strap hanging outside
        or are there marks on his neck? (rub spots from strap)
    
    2)  Look horse over physically.  Any obvious scars around legs,
        knees?  Does he have pin fire marks? (little circles of even
        sized scars running from knee to ankle.  This is a treatment
        for bowed tendons)  Hooves - shod properly? Any rings or bad
        cracks?
    
    There are more, but too many hints to enter.  
    
    L-
       

    
    I am a firm believer in xrays on a horse I am seriously considering.  
    
    But first, I will do a 'flexion' test on all four legs myself if I have
    any questions about soundness.  This has eliminated a few for me
    without having to call the vet out.  (Flexion test is where a leg is
    held snuggly in a flexed position for a minute or so, then the horse is
    IMMEDIATELY trotted out.  If the horse is lame from any leg then you
    need to find out why.  In fact I found one that failed the flexion test
    on all four.  He trotted sound on the line, but not after each flexion.  
    He was equally lame on all four so he didn't appear particularly lame
    just trotting around.)
    
    Calling the horse's usual vet is helpful.  But you might want to bring
    in your own for the sale exam.

    more on dr barnes..
    
    if he does check the horse out/make sure you ask for xrays for him
    to take, even though he says it isnt nessecary.
    
    	just from experience on this..
    
    	wendy 

    Someone asked recently about prepurchase exams when a sound horse they
    were looking to sell was turned down after the prospective buyer's vet 
    said it was likely that horse would not hold up... Over the weekend, I 
    got around to looking at the May 1993 issue of EQUUS. On pages 90-91,
    I found the following related article. I couldn't remember where the
    other not was, so I'm posting this in one of the VET_CHECK strings...

    "DO PREPURCHASE EXAMS MATTER?

    A veterinarian's bill of health is a key consideration in the buying and 
    selling of a horse. In practice, however, a prepurchase examination may 
    not be a very reliable predictor of an animal's future usefulness, 
    according to Andrew J. Dart, BVSc, of the University of California at 
    Davis. Dart's retrospective statistical study found that the majority
    of horse's declared unserviceable in a veterinarian's prepurchase exam
    were bought anyway, and that most of those horses were sound upon 
    follow-up examination.

    In his research, Dart traced 134 horses that had been evaluated over a 
    two year period and whose records were on file at UC-Davis. The exams-
    conducted by 66 veterinarians at the school and on various farms-all 
    included a performance and lameness test, and about half the horses were
    radiographed. Less than one in four of the examinations included a written 
    summary of the veterinarian's findings.

    The practitioners determined that only 37% of the horses were serviceable 
    for their intended uses yet more than half were purchased. When Dart 
    followed up on the horses to see whether functional status had changed,
    he discovered that of the 50 found serviceable at the time of purchase,
    42 were still serviceable; of the 44 unserviceable horses that were 
    purchased, 35 were serviceable. Th remaining 40 horses were not purchased
    and could not be traced.

    Dart notes that the large number of veterinarians had an impact on his 
    findings. Their decisions, he adds, seem to have been influenced by the
    location of the examination, the horse's value and intended use. Horses
    brought to the clinic were more likely to be found unserviceable than 
    those that were evaluated in the field, Dart discovered. In addition,
    horse's valued at more than $2,500 were found to be lame more regularly
    than those valued at or less than $2,500. And performance horses tended
    to be diaganosed as lame more frequently than those used for pleasure.

    While the prepurchase examination may not have dissuaded potential buyers
    from buying a horse, Dart notes, in a few cases the results of the 
    evaluation were used to negotiate a lower price."