Pre-Purchase Examination

The pre-purchase examination can be the most important investment you can make outside of the actual purchase of your horse. In the past, horses were either passed or failed during the vetting. This is not the role of the veterinarian today. Our goal is to determine if the horse is sound for its intended purpose. As an example, a horse that has an old tendon injury and has a low grade lameness may be perfectly sound when used as a weekend pleasure animal. However, if the horses intended purpose is for 3 day eventing, then we would most likely judge the animal unsound for that very athletic purpose.  

Our examination is broken down into a complete health exam, a hands-on conformation exam and a soundness evaluation. The soundness exam involves flexion tests, observation of the various gaits of the horse, both in hand and while being lunged. Typically following the pre-purchase exam, most buyers elect to take a set of digital radiographs. Depending on the desires of the purchaser, we can also provide a CBC and serum chemistry, drug screen, endoscopic evaluation, semen evaluation and ultrasound analysis.