A routine wellness check for a Paint Horse follows the full stock-horse exam — teeth, feet, movement, vitals — and adds one breed-flavored priority: the skin beneath those white markings. Pink, unpigmented skin on a Paint's face, legs, and body burns, crusts, and develops lumps more readily than the dark skin beside it, and a thorough vet treats the pattern map as part of the exam rather than decoration. The rest of the visit builds baselines: weight, condition, dental state, and soundness notes that make next year's comparison meaningful for a horse expected to stay rideable for decades.
Vitals, weight, and condition on a stock horse build
The vet starts with temperature, pulse, respiration, gut sounds, and gum color, then moves to a weight tape and condition score felt over the ribs, crest, and tailhead. Paints descend from easy-keeping stock horse lines, and a gelding who looks pleasantly round in a winter coat may be carrying a cresty neck and fat behind the shoulder that point toward metabolic trouble. Hands tell the truth the eye misses. The vet also watches how the horse stands at rest — weight shifted off one foot, a hind leg rested constantly, or a head held low can each be the first sentence of a story worth investigating before it becomes lameness.
Teeth, chewing, and the annual mouth check
A speculum exam lets the vet see the full arcade of teeth, checking for sharp points that ulcer the cheeks, hooks at the front and back, loose molars, and gaps trapping feed. Paint Horses ridden in a bit show mouth problems early as head tossing, leaning on one rein, or dropping grain, so the vet asks how the horse goes under saddle, not just how it eats. Whether the chewing surfaces need floating is a judgment made on findings, not the calendar alone. Any bad odor from the mouth or one-sided nasal discharge gets mentioned here, since both can trace back to a tooth root rather than the nose itself.
Skin under the white markings, eyes, and coat
This is where a Paint exam earns its extra minutes. The vet runs hands and eyes over the pink-skinned areas — a blaze or bald face, white stockings, the edges of body patches — looking for sunburn, crusting, thickened patches, or any new lump, and parts the coat over the whole body for rain rot, lice in winter, and rubs. Eyes get a deliberate look as well, with the skin around them checked where white hair leaves the area exposed. Fly control, sun protection for pink noses, and shade access come up naturally in this part of the conversation, tailored to how much white your particular Paint carries and where.
Hooves, legs, and watching the horse move
Each hoof is examined for balance, cracks, and thrush in the frog grooves, and legs are palpated for heat, windpuffs, splints, or stocked-up filling that walked off by the time you arrived. Then the horse is led at a walk and trot on firm, level ground so the vet can watch stride length and foot placement, sometimes with the head turned loose on a circle. A Paint who shortens behind only on the turn is telling a different story from one who is uneven in a straight line. Storing the dental chart, skin notes, and soundness findings in a KinsLe Pet Passport means a Paint's patterned hide and everything beneath it stay documented in one record that follows the horse anywhere.