A local horse owner has filed a malpractice lawsuit against an Ocala veterinarian, accusing the medical office of clearing a $75,000 horse for purchase despite a hidden neck deformity that made the animal dangerously violent and led to its eventual euthanasia.
Joan Burke filed the lawsuit against MVP Equine MVP Equine, PLLC, which does business as MVP Equine Sport & Performance Medicine in Ocala, in the Fifth Judicial Circuit Court of Marion County on March 4.
According to the complaint, Burke allegedly hired Dr. Matthew Povlovich and MVP Equine in February 2023 to perform a pre-purchase examination and a full set of radiographs on a Dutch Warmblood gelding named “Over Easy.”
Burke alleges that Dr. Povlovich told her the horse’s health and radiographs “looked great,” leading her to finalize the purchase of “Over Easy” for $75,000 on February 15, 2023.
The purchase was made in reliance on Dr. Povlovich’s professional assessment that the animal’s health and radiographs were normal. Burke’s intent was to place the horse in full training to develop him into a competitive hunter for eventual resale, according to the complaint.
However, shortly after the purchase, the horse began to exhibit increasingly erratic and explosive behavior. The complaint describes the animal’s conduct as uncontrollable and violent for no apparent reason, a situation that eventually made the gelding a severe danger to any human handlers.
According to Burke, over the months following the purchase of the horse, her repeated requests for the exam report and radiographs from MVP were ignored by the medical office.
Burke claims that when the report was finally produced in October of 2024, staff told her that the radiographs were “lost” due to a hard drive failure. At the time, she was told that the reports were “unable to be recovered.”
After more than two years of escalating behavioral issues, Burke sought a second opinion in October 2025. A new set of radiographs revealed several severe abnormalities, most notably a congenital condition known as Equine Complex Vertebral Malformation, or ECVM.
This malformation of the neck was identified as the direct cause of the horse’s violent and erratic outbursts.
Because ECVM is a congenital condition, the lawsuit asserts it would have been present when Dr. Povlovich performed the initial examination in 2023.
The horse’s condition continued to deteriorate to the point where it was no longer safe to manage, and “Over Easy” was humanely euthanized on November 12, 2025, according to the complaint.
Burke maintains that she never would have purchased the horse or invested in its care and training had the structural defect been properly identified during the initial exam.
Burke is seeking over $50,000 in damages, alleging the vet knew or should have known of the deformity during the initial exam.