Mid-South Equine Sports Medicine & Surgery
in Tioga, Texas
Mid-South Equine Sports Medicine & Surgery
in Tioga, Texas
Mid-South Equine Sports Medicine & Surgery provides equine sports medicine, lameness evaluation, and equine surgery for performance horses across North Texas and DFW. We are the only clinic within two hours of Tioga offering standing MRI, traditional MRI, and equine bone scan. Our services include diagnostic imaging, orthopedic and arthroscopic surgery with a board-certified surgeon, regenerative therapy, rehabilitation,gastroscopy, in-house laboratory, pre-purchase exams, and reproduction.
Performance Horse Show Veterinarian | On-Site Care | Mid-South Equine
Pre-Purchase Exam
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Gait & Soundness Evaluation
Your prospect is evaluated in motion — walk, trot, and lope, straight lines and circles both directions, hard footing and soft. Flexion tests on each limb. Under saddle when appropriate.We're looking for asymmetry, shortened stride, reluctance to turn, and the compensation patterns that suggest something has been managed rather than resolved.Objective gait analysis with Lameness Locator is available and worth considering on a significant purchase. Body-mounted sensors measure head and pelvic movement at a resolution beyond visual detection, producing numerical data on which limb is affected and how severely. Mild and bilateral lameness — the kind easiest to miss on a subjective trot-up — is exactly what it catches.
Health Evaluation
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A complete physical examination:
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Cardiac and respiratory auscultation, at rest and after exercise
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Ocular examination
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Oral and dental evaluation
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Skin, body condition, and overall condition
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Neurologic assessment
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Palpation of limbs, back, and neck
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Hoof evaluation and hoof testers
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Identification and markings verified against papers
Bloodwork and drug screening are available and worth discussing. A horse that shows sound on the day may be doing so with help.
Horse Pre-Purchase Examinations
North Texas | Tioga, Texas
A pre-purchase exam doesn't tell you whether to buy a horse. It tells you what you're buying.Our job isn't to pass or fail a horse — it's to give you an accurate picture of its current condition and any findings that could affect its future, so you can decide whether that horse fits what you're asking it to do. A finding that ends the deal for a futurity prospect may be entirely acceptable in a youth trail horse.We work for the buyer. We'll tell you what we find, plainly.
Diagnostic Imaging
Radiographs are where most pre-purchase decisions actually get made. Findings like OCD lesions, arthritic change, navicular changes, and bone cysts are common in horses that trot perfectly sound the day you look at them.You choose the imaging scope, and we'll advise based on the horse, the price, and the discipline:
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Basic survey — feet and fetlocks
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Standard set — feet, fetlocks, hocks, stifles
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Comprehensive — adds neck, back, or additional joints
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Ultrasound — tendons and ligaments where indicated
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Advanced imaging — standing MRI or bone scan when findings warrant a closer look
Because we run all of it on-site, a questionable radiograph can go straight to further imaging the same day rather than turning into a week of waiting while the seller gets nervous.
Conformation Evaluation
Conformation isn't cosmetic — it predicts where a horse will take stress over a career. We assess limb alignment, hoof-pastern axis, foot balance, and overall structure, and tell you what that structure is likely to mean for the discipline you're buying the horse for.The same crooked leg carries different consequences for a barrel horse than for a halter horse.
What to Know Before You Schedule
Tell us the discipline and the intended use. A horse being bought as a futurity prospect gets evaluated against a different standard than one bought to haul a youth to weekend shows.Tell us the price range. It shapes how much imaging is proportionate.The seller should not select the veterinarian. We work for you, and that separation matters.A pre-purchase exam is a snapshot. It reflects the horse on that day. It's not a guarantee or a warranty, and no exam can rule out every future problem.
For Out-of-State Buyers
We provide full written reports with digital images that can be shared with you and your own veterinarian for a second opinion. Many of our pre-purchase clients never see the horse in person until after the exam.