Preventative & Routine Care

Vaccinations are a key part of keeping your equine healthy. They protect against serious, often fatal diseases that cannot easily be treated, helping to keep your equine – and the wider equine community – safe.

In the UK, the main vaccines recommended are for Equine Influenza (Flu) and Tetanus. Staying up to date also ensures your equine meets competition and insurance requirements.

Equine influenza

Primary course

• 1st vaccine: from 5 months of age
• 2nd vaccine: 21–60 days after the first (required before competition)
• 3rd vaccine: 120–180 days after the second

Booster Vaccinations

Due to recent flu outbreaks, most horses now require a booster every 6 months rather than annually.

• Many competition bodies require a flu booster within 6 months of an event – always check the organiser’s rules.
• Under FEI rules, boosters must be given every 6 months + 21 days before arriving at an event (but not within 7 days before).
• These recommendations also satisfy BHA regulations.

Tetanus

Tetanus vaccination can be given as part of a combined flu–tetanus vaccine or separately.

• 1st vaccine: from 5 months of age
• 2nd vaccine: 4–6 weeks later
• Booster: every 2 years

Tetanus is caused by bacteria in soil and manure – even minor wounds can be fatal if a horse is not protected, so regular vaccination is essential for every horse.

Pregnant mares

To protect both mare and foal, we recommend:

• Equine herpes virus (EHV): at 5, 7 and 9 months of gestation

Routine dentistry – comfort, health, and performance

Regular dental care is vital to your equine’s wellbeing and performance. Subtle dental problems can cause pain, weight loss, or resistance under saddle long before clear signs appear. With gentle sedation and advanced equipment, we provide thorough, stress-free dental examinations and treatments right at your yard – keeping your equine comfortable, happy, and performing at their best.

Routine dental care is an essential part of every equine’s healthcare plan. We recommend a dental examination every 12 months at the same time as the annual booster although in some cases depending on age, workload, and individual dental needs we might recommend every 6 months.

Dental problems can cause pain, weight loss, poor digestion, colic, choke, behavioural changes and poor performance.

Regular check-ups allow us to detect problems early, often before obvious signs appear. By the time an equine shows issues such as dropping food, difficulty chewing, headshaking, or resisting the bit, dental disease may already be advanced.

We are experienced in all aspects of routine equine dentistry, including power floating, wolf tooth removal, incisors and cheek teeth extractions and diastema flushing and widening.

Every routine dental appointment includes a comprehensive oral examination using appropriate lighting and specialised dental equipment. Where indicated, we may recommend an oroscope (dental camera), which allows us to examine every area of the mouth in exceptional detail and identify problems that may not be visible during a standard examination.

To ensure a calm, safe, and stress-free experience for your horse, we routinely provide light sedation at no additional cost. This allows for a thorough assessment and precise treatment while maximising your horse’s comfort and safety.

Most dental procedures can be carried out at your yard, minimising disruption for both horse and owner.

Worming and parasite control

Worms can quietly undermine your equine’s health, leading to weight loss, poor condition and colic. Our approach focuses on strategic, evidence-based worming using regular worm egg counts (WECs) and pasture management. This protects your horse, the wider herd, and the long-term effectiveness of vital worming treatments.

Effective worm control is essential for your equine’s health. We recommend using worm egg counts (WEC) to guide treatment. WEC testing identifies which worms are present and in what numbers, allowing targeted treatment rather than routine blanket worming. Strategic treatment also protects the environment by reducing contamination of pastures, as wormers are eliminated in faeces.

Reducing unnecessary wormer use also helps prevent resistance, which is a growing concern in equine worm populations. Good grazing management, such as daily poo picking, alongside regular WEC testing, is key to keeping your equine healthy and protecting wormer effectiveness across your yard.

All equines in the UK must be microchipped and issued with a valid passport in accordance with UK equine identification legislation. Microchip implantation is classified as an act of veterinary surgery and must be carried out by a qualified veterinary surgeon.

We implant ISO-compliant microchips and complete full passport identification, including markings diagrams and written descriptions, to the required standard. We also check for the presence of any existing microchip prior to implantation to avoid duplication.

Our identification services

Our service includes:

• Microchip implantation in accordance with UK legislation
• Full passport identification (silhouette and written description)
• Verification and recording of microchip numbers
• Completion of documentation for submission to the appropriate Passport Issuing Organisation. We use the Horse Passport Agency
• Advice on owner/keeper responsibilities and ongoing compliance

Some equines simply do not tolerate certain procedures well – whether it is the farrier, clipping, loading, travelling, or even routine dental work. In these situations, attempting to persist without sedation can be stressful for the animal and unsafe for everyone involved.

At Victor Franco & Partners Equine Practice, we believe that sedation, when used appropriately, is a welfare-friendly and sensible choice. It helps keep both equine and handler safe, minimises stress, and allows procedures to be carried out calmly and effectively.

Often, oral sedation does not produce the desired effect, and tasks may be left incomplete. Worry not – we will come to you and administer injectable sedation, which is the most effective and reliable method of restraint for completing procedures safely and efficiently.

When sedation can help

We can attend your yard to safely sedate your equine for a wide range of situations, including (but not limited to):

• Farriery
• Clipping
• Routine and advanced dental work, when performed by recognised equine dental technicians
• Loading and travelling

Every sedation is tailored to the individual equine, taking into account age, temperament, any medical condition, and the nature of the task. We use only licensed veterinary sedatives and closely monitor your animal throughout to ensure their comfort and recovery.