Horses are risky purchases. The healthiest of new horses can sustain a career- or life-threatening injury at any time. But there are steps you can take before you buy to give yourself the best chance of selecting and purchasing a suitable partner healthy enough to meet your needs and goals, including having your veterinarian conduct a thorough prepurchase exam.

What will your veterinarian evaluate during one of these evaluations? At the 2018 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Dec. 1-5 in San Francisco, California, Melissa Welker, DVM, of John R. Steele & Associates, in Vernon, New York, reviewed what’s involved in her prepurchase exams for upper-level sport horses.

“The equine prepurchase exam has evolved a great deal in recent years,” she said. “As technology advances, so does the level of complication these exams often entail. The value of sport horses has increased dramatically in the last decade, creating a new sense of pressures on the buyer, seller, and veterinary practitioner asked to perform the a prepurchase exam.”

As such, she encouraged veterinarians to find a routine that works for them and stick to