Would and one take a free mare that has a heart murmur, and what are the effects of a murmur? I was told she would be able to do dressage, but not eventing which I don’t do so that didn’t madder. It is a 2yr old TB mare, if that makes any difference and un-raced. What kinda of treatment is involved if any? Thanks for you help.
Can only cite one example in my experience. Youngish (6 to 8 year old) Appendix gelding. Had been evented through training level, was for sale for about $8K. Guy tried it, liked it, had it vetted. Vet said it had a heart murmur. When pressed to speculate on the horse’s usefulness/life span, he said it might never have a problem - or - it could be useless/drop dead within a week. Now - I imagine there are ‘degrees’ of heart murmurs and I don’t know how mild/bad this horse’s murmur was. The vet did say, however, that he would not event him. Prospective purchaser backed out. The horse did go on to be sold for about $10K, presumably was vetted then and purchaser went ahead and the horse became an open jumper and I never heard of him having any problems. I don’t think there is any treatment per se.
I know several horses with heart murmurs. Yes, there are varying degrees of severity for this condition. My gelding has a VERY loud murmur and is turning 26 this year. He was raced, then jumped, then abused and starved, then came to me as a rescue. He has never had a problem that I know of.
If the horse is to be an eventer, then they won’t pass prepurchase (usually). However I know horses with murmurs who event. For a few hundred dollars tests can be done to evaluate the physiological severity (I was told that just because they are loud doesn’t always mean they are physiologically worse).
I have not known a horse with this problem to be limited in it’s career due to this issue. However, they were also not asked to compete or train at any kind of high performance level.
It is something to consider, and be aware of, but not a deal breaker for me.
As far as treatment… there isn’t a fix (watch out, I know a feed company that says their feed can cure heart murmurs… mmmmmkay?) However I was told to manage my gelding by watching for any signs of exercise intolerance and to make sure he drank enough water.
Thank you for your replys, she woun’t be for eventing just lower level dressage and trail riding, and mabey cow hurding if she takes to it, but nothing extensive. I don’t know the degree of the heart murmur, but something I will find out.
Heart murmurs are very common in horses. I wouldn’t worry about it.
Heck, I have a heart murmur, and I’m in excellent health and very physically active.
although frequently murmurs do not cause problems, some of them do, and you can’t tell by listening to them which ones will or won’t get worse.
You need to get more information from your vet, and if they recommend it a cardiac ultrasound will give more info (usually at a referral hospital or university).
I have known horses to have murmurs for years with no problems, but recently had a client with a lovely horse that had to be euthanized due to heart problems. If the horse has had the murmur all his life, it is somewhat less likely to be problematic than one that has not been previously detected.
I new a horse that evented through Prelim with a heart murmur, and then became a H/J and is in her 20s and still going.
One thing about heart murmers is that they are often misdiagnosed. I have seen sale horses flunk a vet prepurchase because of a heart murmur, and later have 2 different vets say they can’t hear anything wrong. With one of my own horses the vet one day said they thought they heard one, then the next visit say it sounded fine (later vets all thought he was ok too). I’d get a second opinion if it was me.
My family once sold a 3 year old dressage prospect with a heart murmur - it was diagnosed during a prepurchase exam. We trailered to a vet hospital and split the cost of a followup cardiac ultrasound with the buyer. It was determined at that time that the murmur was no biggie & posed no threat to his longevity or athletic potential. I was under 18 at the time so my mom was the one dealing with the money, but if I recall correctly she ended up taking a bit off the price but not a great deal.
I’VE been misdiagnosed as having a heart murmur - one cardiologist told me I had had a heart attack and a small stroke, and had a heart murmur and a heart defect! The next cardiologist listened to my heart, looked at my ultrasound report, did a stress test, and diagnosed me as having a perfect heart . . . and migraine headaches. He told me that the “defect” in question, a patent foramen ovale, is present in about 25% of people and shouldn’t trouble me in the slightest. He said my “stroke” (which had included right side paralysis and other scary symptoms) had been an atypical but not uncommon migraine headache.
At 26, I decided to believe the second guy and get on with my otherwise healthy life.
Get a second opinion!!
I havea lovely mare I bought in 2002…with a grade 1 murmur. She’d had it for years…I bought her when she was 14.
She was perfectly fine with it until late summer 2006. We had a very unusually bad heat wave…temps hit 110-115 for 3 days in a row. Despite constant care and no work at all…Gal ended up with heat stroke. Just too hot for her. She got immediate vet attention.
After that…her heart murmur went from a 1 to a 5 on a scale of 1-5. She’s got lvalves that leak back bad enough you can actually see the “backwash” in her throat pulse. She also has a valve not working. Her heart is really enlarged. At this time she doesn’t yet have any edema…but we’re watching for that.
As long as the weather isn’t hot…she acts like any other horse. Once the weather heats up…she gets very lethargic and has respiratory problems. If the weather gets humid or heats up over 85 degrees she has to stay in her stall. (the barn has recently been refitted with huge roof venting fans, she has multiple stall fans, a cooling blanket and a misting system)
Frankly we’re all astounded she’s still alive…and acting normally. Vets have never heard a heart as bad as hers before.
So do be forewarned that circumstances can change dramatically.
However…many horses have low grade murmurs and never have any issues at all with them.
I’d suggest having the horse well vetted and discuss fully your plans for the horse, the grade and type of murmur and make your decision from there.
I sold my TB gelding to my best friend, and in his PPE the vet picked up a murmur while standing still, but when he listened again during work, it was gone. He said TB’s often have larger-than-average hearts and this is not uncommon. This gelding has never had any problem whatsoever with it.
One of the boarders at our stable purchased and imported a G.P. jumper from Germany. He was later diagnosed with a heart murmur. This was over 7 years ago. He has never had a problem.
He was jumped by an AA about 3’6, and now his daughter is riding him for Dressage. I am not familiar with varying degrees of severity, but honestly, as you say, if she vets out in other areas, she is free, and if she is suitable for your level of riding and training, I would go for it!
Echocardiogram
There are a couple things to find out about the murmur–the easiest is the “grade” of murmur (1 is mildest, 5 most severe) which the vet will probably test both at rest and after being lunged.
The best (really only) way to get any sort of future prognosis, though, is to get an echocardiogram which is sort of like a sonogram of the heart and will tell you which valve the murmur is in, and exactly what mechanically is causing the murmur (severity of the prolapse in which valve).
I’ve been told by vets that murmurs are quite common in OTTBs, apparently because of the strain of running them at a young age. I had an OTTB with a heart murmur that was a successful race horse (45 starts, a number of wins) who went on to be an upper level event horse and then a jumper, and was always quite easy to condition. But I would probably want the reassurance of a vet that it was wise to work the horse, just because of the potential dangers (to both horse and rider) if the horse collapsed. I had an echocardiogram done for about $350.
I would have the horse checked by a vet. I had a gelding with a murmer. He dies at 5 years old. He was in dressage training and was going to his first show in 2 days before he died. His dad now has a murmer found by the vet and is 24 but loosing weight and may not live much longer. The sire has never been ridden just used for breeding.
We have a swedish horse at the barn with a murmur, his life expectancy, moreso his worklife-expectancy is about 8 or 9. He is five now. He gets checked every 6 months, as it has been progressively getting worse since he was two.
Since they can vary in severity, I would not take the horse without having it vetted and getting the vet’s prognosis and assessment of risk.
