December 2025 Newsletter

Festive Wishes and Pre-Purchase Exams in Racehorses

From All of Us: As we reach the festive season, the most wonderful time of the year,  play some Mariah Carey on the radio and look back on the past twelve months, it’s easy to smile whilst looking back to what has been a remarkable year. 2025 brought us growth, new beginnings, and fun moments that reminded us why we love what we do.

As we reach the festive season, the most wonderful time of the year,  play some Mariah Carey on the radio and look back on the past twelve months, it’s easy to smile whilst looking back to what has been a remarkable year. 2025 brought us growth, new beginnings, and fun moments that reminded us why we love what we do.

Our little gem of a practice, if I may say so myself, has gone from strength to strength. Our caseload grew steadily and healthily, reflecting the confidence you guys place in us and the dedication of our team. From routine check-ups to complex lameness workups, from emergency calls to internal medicine, from rehabilitation to repro, and everything in between, we strive to deliver the high standard of veterinary service you are now familiar with.

Our team of vets and support staff, from office to nurses, have been exceptional this year: I feel quite lucky to have such a talented group of people working together.

A major highlight on a personal level was the arrival of our pair of twins this year! Coupled with a serious amount of sleep deprivation. Penny Serena and Matteo Giovanni were born on October 14th, respectively 6pounds and 4pounds. We (well actually Emily) didn’t have the smoothest C-section but nevertheless all is ok now and both growing well so I look forward to taking them out on farm calls! I hope they are even just remotely into arts and music so by the time they turn 3 or 4 I will finally be helpful at something as a father!

Emily on the other hand has been exceptional and is in full charge of the whole baby operation. The house is now full of all sorts of toys! two of each! which will translate into 2 pushbikes, 2 ponies etc etc…

There are lots of babies born in 2025 (Emma’s Blair, Percy Pearce, Isaac Poste, Anna Skelton, Max Murphy)!! All within a few miles radius! Pony clubs here we come, although I hope they’ll wield a guitar as much as a whip!

Mark Beever (Big Star’s groom but more notably a fantastic, knowledgeable and experienced horseman) said to me kids will change me and they did! Crazy how you all of a sudden see things from a different perspective.

Father Xmas has arrived earlier this year as we just purchased more x-ray machines and scanners so we are all fully kitted up making sure no stone is left unturned when attending your horses. Behind the scenes, we’ve continued upgrading our systems, both in terms of admin software and storage of images, and did our best to improve our communication to clients and strengthen our team culture.

As Christmas approaches, we want to extend our heartfelt thanks to each of you, owners, riders, trainers, breeders, and everyone who forms part of our extended practice.

Thank you for another year of partnership, patience and trust. We all wish you a joyful Xmas, a hopefully quiet holiday season (in terms of emergencies, not in terms of winners!), and a bright, healthy, and happy New Year. We look forward to seeing what 2026 will bring us! Hopefully lots of winners and success! But most importantly prosperity and health. This month you get a double whammy as not only you get our Xmas wishes but also a brand new newsletter about what we do best, vettings! Just the best thing to read by the fireplace whilst sipping on some Port wine and listening to some Xmas tunes.

Warmest wishes,

Aaron, Jasmin, Mollie, Sandrine, Dave, Patrick, Molly, Alice, Cyrielle and Paolo

Pre-Purchase Exams in Racehorses

People at the practice say that I ramble on philosophically too much recently, maybe I’m just getting old, therefore to overturn such a trend here is a newsletter about something a bit more current: vettings.

Buying a racehorse is as much art as it is science. Pedigree, speed, stamina, all wrapped up in a smooth equine package. But before the hammer falls at auction or you shake hands on a private deal, the most sensible step is a pre-purchase veterinary examination, and I’m not saying that because it helps pay my mortgage. Vettings, quite literally, are the due diligence of the racing world: an assessment of the horse’s current health, its potential for performance, and its suitability for  training and competition. And yet, while a “vetting” might sound straightforward, it is anything but – I speak for experience! Between five-stage evaluations, x-rays, scopes, and ultrasound scans, not to mention the labyrinth of legal implications, there is much to be aware of.

The “five-stage vetting” is the standard, comprehensive, accepted examination performed prior to a purchase. It is essentially a clinical MOT for a racehorse, designed to give the buyer a thorough snapshot of the horse’s condition at that moment in time. It consists of:

Stage 1: Preliminary Examination – This is the static stage: eyes, heart, lungs, limbs, conformation. Think of it as the vet’s first impression, but with a stethoscope and torch.

Stage 2: Walk and Trot in Hand – The horse is trotted up in straight lines, flexion tests are applied, and the vet searches for subtle lameness or gait abnormalities.

Stage 3: Exercise Phase – Here the horse is put under physical stress, usually ridden, to highlight respiratory or cardiac issues that only appear when the heart is pounding.

Stage 4: Rest and Recovery – After exertion, the vet observes how the horse recovers, monitoring heart and respiratory rates.

Stage 5: Second Trot-Up – Finally, another movement assessment to see if fatigue or exercise has revealed issues invisible earlier.

This process is designed to be all-encompassing, but even so, it is only a snapshot in time. Horses are living, breathing, unpredictable athletes, not machines.

Public auctions run to their own rhythm. Time is tight, horses are often trotted in busy areas and vendors want quick turnover. Here, the two-stage vetting reigns supreme. No exercise test, no recovery observations: sale vettings run at  a much faster pace. Often vets are instructed to perform pre-bid inspections with little time left before the horse walks in a sales ring, so experience, attention, and sharpness are essential skills to have for any vet attending public auctions.

Auction vettings are, quite literally, our bread and butter as a practice. As I said, fast-paced, pragmatic, and designed to give buyers a workable risk profile in a high-pressure environment. But buyers should remember: a two-stage has obvious limitations to a five-stage. Ultimately all revolves around risk tolerance, not guarantees

Additional diagnostics are often employed at either 2 or 5 stage vettings to shine light on specific areas that cannot be examined thoroughly by clinical examination alone. These are:

– X-rays: These reveal what eyes and hands cannot – bone chips, early arthritic changes, or conformational quirks in the joints. In the racing world, particular attention goes to fetlocks, knees and back.

– Endoscopic (Scope) Examination: This is the gold standard for checking the upper airway. Issues like laryngeal hemiplegia (roaring) or soft palate displacement can compromise a racing career before it begins.

– Ultrasound Scans: My favourite part of any examination, invaluable for tendons and ligaments, ultrasound can spot lesions that might not yet show as lameness but could unravel under training pressure

Buyers often request these extras as an “insurance policy”. But every test brings its own ambiguity: findings may or may not ever translate into a problem. Interpreting what’s clinically significant versus what’s a benign oddity is both the vet’s skill and the buyer’s gamble.

If limb x-rays can be tricky, back x-rays are an absolute minefield. The equine spine is a complex structure, and imaging is often open to interpretation. Overriding dorsal spinous processes (“kissing spines”) are common findings on x-rays, even in horses that have never shown a day of back pain. Nevertheless, some horses with picture-perfect images can be chronically sore.

The problem is one of correlation: what you see radiographically does not always match what the horse feels and what the vet sees clinically. Buyers (and sometimes sellers) latch onto these images, either dismissing a horse unfairly or overemphasising minor anomalies. As vets, our role is to interpret cautiously, being level headed and place x-ray findings in the broader clinical and historical context. A spine dotted with changes may never trouble a horse; a seemingly clean back might be a ticking time bomb. This is perhaps the best example of why vettings are risk assessments, not crystal balls.

My advice to young vets and clients, or shall I say my point of view? I’d much rather have a nice clinical exam than nice radiographs. Another thing I’ve learnt over the years? If it looks too bad on xrays, and the horse still has a leg in each corner, it’s probably not significant!

Ultrasound scanning is paramount and has become a standard procedure, requested in most private and sales vettings. Which in a way is a double edged knife: in an age where ultrasonography is at our fingertips, it’s easy to forget the value of skilled hands. Palpation remains one of the most important tools in assessing racehorse tendons, something no machine can truly replace. Subtle changes in heat, texture, and tension are often first detected through touch, long before they appear on a scan. If we rely too heavily on imaging, we risk losing the tactile sensitivity and intuition that come only from regular, thoughtful handling. Balancing modern diagnostics with traditional hands-on skills ensures early detection, accurate interpretation, and ultimately, better outcomes for our horses.

Endoscopic examination, or “scoping,” is an essential step when assessing a Thoroughbred at auction. The horse’s upper airway plays a critical role in performance, and even minor abnormalities can significantly affect future racing potential. Scoping allows buyers to identify issues such as laryngeal dysfunction, soft palate instability, or other obstructions that might not be visible externally. Investing in this quick, non-invasive assessment helps protect buyers from costly surprises and ensures horses are matched with realistic expectations for their athletic careers – but again often findings are not blackor white and need careful interpretation.

The era of the simple “pass or fail” vetting is long gone. Modern veterinary practice recognises that every horse carries some degree of risk – the question is how much, and whether that risk is acceptable to the buyer’s intended use, ambitions, budget and risk adversity. Our role is to outline the likelihood that any findings may impact performance in the future. The 3 key categories of risk are acceptable, increased and unacceptable, which as you can imagine equals to fail. This shift away from binary outcomes makes the process more nuanced, more realistic, and ultimately more useful. The key question I ask myself every time I vet a horse is “would I recommend this horse based on what I’ve seen”; vets should basically think that horses should be suitable unless there is something substantial that prevents them from their intended use.

Things sadly are bound to go wrong once in a while so here we are discussing pitfalls and headaches.

First of all, the pre-purchase report is commissioned by, and belongs to, the buyer. It is confidential medical information about the horse, and the seller is not automatically entitled to see it. That said, in the close-knit world of racing, reports sometimes find their way back to vendors, raising questions of confidentiality and liability. It’s a bit more complex at sales where multiple buyers can purchase a “share” to a report that was already commissioned by another potential buyer. It’s very important to have a fair approach (to buyers but also to vendors, who make their living out of it) and disclose the same exact information amongst all people who get a share of the vetting: verbal communication can be interpreted differently whilst a written report should pass on a single, straightforward message. It is now a legal requirement to provide buyers at auctions with a written report inclusive of all the legal small prints at the bottom. The way we do it, and more so in my case specifically as no-one can read or interpret my writing, is to screen shot and send the hand written form to a buyer together with a very concise text message that copies/summarises the actual pre-bidding certificate so there is no confusion on who said what.As much as we try our hardest, a pre-purchase exam is not a guarantee of future soundness. Vets are not oracles or fortune tellers. The horse may pass the vetting with flying colours and yet go lame six weeks later. Disputes can arise when expectations are not carefully managed.

Sellers may not always be forthcoming with the horse’s past injuries or treatments, whether deliberately or simply by omission. Yet a horse’s veterinary history is invaluable. Buyers should always request it, but unless consent is granted, vets cannot release records. Here lies fertile ground for legal wrangling when an undisclosed history comes to light later. It is a requirement for vendors to act transparently so concealed information can lead to a claim and returnability of the horse due to pre-existing, undisclosed conditions.

A small chip on an x-ray, for example, might never cause trouble, or it might flare up spectacularly. If the horse later breaks down, was the vet at fault for underplaying the risk? Or is that simply the risk inherent in the sport? Courts have grappled with such questions, often landing on the principle that the vet’s duty is to exercise reasonable skill and care, not to guarantee outcomes. More than any single test, a complete veterinary history can be the buyer’s best friend. Patterns of colic, repeated tendon strains, episodes of lameness – all of these offer context that a five-stage exam alone cannot. And yet, getting hold of these records can be quite challenging. Vendors may refuse, buyers should press for disclosure, and vets should flag the limits of their assessment in the absence of full history.

Pre-purchase exams are invaluable, but they are not a prophecy on a horse’s future. They are risk assessments, structured, professional, and evidence-based, but still risk assessments.

We are learning more and more about the statistics relating to each individual type of injury/condition so being open minded and forward thinking during a vetting (as in everything in life) can make the difference between a hard judgement and a more balanced one. Believe it or not I did read most of the equine textbooks from first to last page however I can tell you that racehorses prove themselves to be capable of overcoming severe injuries and like to prove the vet wrong! It happens to me all the time! However I do enjoy when horses prove me wrong by defying my pessimism!

We all must remember: a clean vetting does not guarantee a champion, and a vet’s cautionary note does not doom a prospect to mediocrity. Vettings should be seen as one piece of the puzzle, combined with breeding, performance record, clinical exam, history and more. After all, racing itself is just a big gamble, so we all win and lose at times!

I hope you enjoyed reading this newsletter

All the best

Paolo