Everything You Need To Know About Horses

Horse Heart Murmurs

These are without doubt the most common heart abnormalities in horses and they are often found during routine veterinary examinations, for example during the pre-purchase examination.

These murmurs can be found with the use of a stethoscope. A horse with a heart murmur will be heard to have one or more extra sounds during the normal quiet phase of the cardiac cycle. The interpretation of these abnormal sounds requires considerable expertise and experience.  Some murmurs are benign in nature in that they have no effect on the horse’s performance. Others are pathological and may severely affect the horse’s health, let alone performance.

Heart murmurs are a result of turbulence within the normal flow of blood through the heart. A common cause seems to be a lesion on one or more of the heart valves. Some murmurs are fairly quiet whereas others are quiet loud. A grading system has been established to describe the loudness of murmurs, ranging from 1 (faint murmur) to 6 (very loud).

When a heart murmur is detected it is important to have it investigated by your veterinary to establish whether it will affect the horse’s performance.