First Week, Because Shetlands Hide Things
Shetlands evolved to survive on almost nothing in a harsh climate, and the stoicism that comes with that background means a young pony can carry dental trouble, a parasite burden, or sore feet while appearing cheerfully normal to a new owner. A founding check inside his first week with you, or in the first days for a newborn foal, whose visit also confirms nursing, navel health, and limb soundness, puts a vet's hands on him while problems are small.
Teeth and Mouth: A Shetland Specialty
Shetlands carry a known predisposition to dental crowding, a lot of teeth in a small head, so the mouth examination is a headline item rather than a formality. The vet will check his bite, look for retained or crowded teeth appropriate to his age, assess sharp points, and set the dental check interval his mouth actually needs rather than a generic annual assumption. Watch how he eats in the weeks around the visit and report it accurately, dropping partly chewed feed, tilting his head, or taking noticeably longer over hay than companions are all dental information in a pony who will not otherwise complain. A mouth plan founded young prevents the quidding, weight loss, and choke risk that neglected small-pony dentistry eventually produces.
Feet, Movement, and the Weight Conversation
His feet are examined and his trim cycle set, and the vet will watch him move on a firm surface for evenness, because the hoof trouble this breed is prone to often announces itself subtly, a shortened stride, reluctance on hard ground, a stance shifted back off his front feet, long before it is unmistakable. Then comes condition: hands over the neck crest, ribs, and hindquarters, an honest score, and ideally an actual weight from a tape or scale recorded as his baseline. The grazing plan follows directly, since a young Shetland on unrestricted rich pasture is being set up for trouble, and the vet's guidance on restricted grazing, forage type, and exercise is among the most valuable output of the whole visit.
Gut, Parasites, Vaccinations, and Handling
The wider examination covers heart, lungs, and gut sounds, eyes, skin and that famously thick coat parted to look for lice, which love a Shetland in winter, and his droppings and parasite history. Discuss a testing-led parasite programme and the vaccinations appropriate to his age and your region, and bring whatever the seller provided, even if it is only verbal, so gaps are known rather than assumed away. Use the visit to assess his handling honestly too: a young Shetland who cannot yet be caught, led, and have feet lifted safely is a health risk in himself, and the vet can advise on a handling plan while he is still small enough for the lessons to be easy.
Records for a Pony Who May Outlive Several Owners
Shetlands are famously long-lived, and a pony checked as a youngster today may be treated, loaned, shown, and rehomed across three decades, which makes a properly founded record one of the kindest things you can give him. The visit should generate it: identification and markings, baseline weight and condition, dental findings and interval, vaccination and parasite status, and the grazing and weight plan agreed. Every later vet then starts from his history instead of from scratch, and any future keeper inherits facts rather than folklore about what he needs. Update the record at each visit while measurements are fresh, because pony weights reconstructed from memory drift in only one direction.
One Packet for Thirty Years of Pony
Few animals accumulate records across as many years and keepers as a Shetland, and few suffer more from records that stayed behind at a previous yard. Holding his from the first check in one place is what keeps his long story continuous. When a young Shetland's health history is gathered in KinsLe through Pet Passport, his complete packet is ready for every vet, loan home, and handover ahead of him.