Impulsion Unlimited Dressage Horse Sales and Representation

Navigating the Pre-Purchase Exam - Navigating the Pre-Purcahse Exam Part II

Use a variety of factors in deciding whether or not to buy a horse.

What you must realize is that there are often other factors that need to be brought into the picture in deciding whether or not to go ahead with a purchase.  Some of these may be as important or even MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE VETERINARY FINDINGS.  Wise and experienced horsemen use a variety of criteria in deciding whether or not to buy a horse after the pre-purchase exam. 

First of all, consider what the horse has done. 

Many excellent veterinarians will tell you that the greatest prognosticator of whether a horse will stay sound is his performance history.  If he's been doing the job for any period of time, chances are he can handle that job, even if his radiographs might not look so good.  It is great if you have past radiographs to compare, so you can see that the horse has been able to work with his "imperfections."  But don't get too alarmed if they've changed.  Of course they've changed.  What do you expect?!?  Horses are like us.   We're aging and deteriorating - but we've still got a lot of performance in us!  It is often helpful to use the horse's clinical picture and past performance to help you determine the significance of any  imperfections.

A proven performance history is an extremely important factor.

On the other hand, just because a horse has great radiographs and is clinically sound doesn't mean he's a sound horse.  How many times have veterinarians seen sound horses that look great on xrays but still are unsound.  A proven performance history is an extremely important factor to weigh in to the decision about the HORSE'S TRUE SOUNDNESS PROFILE and likelihood to keep performing.

Of course, this is more difficult to consider when shopping for a young horse, especially with unbroken horses.  While this is not an entirely safe aspect, it can be helpful to know about the reputation of the pedigree of the young horse.  Any knowledgeable horseperson will tell you that certain bloodlines produce "tough" horses and others produce "unreliable" and "unsound" ones.  You might want to do a little research.  

Sound horses are not always the ones that fare well in a pre-purchase exam.

Wise and experienced horse people know that "some horses are prone to be sound and others are not."  We all have our stories about horses that went on forever.  Of course your goal is to buy a sound horse that will hold up for your intended purpose.  But "sound horses" are not always the ones that fare  well in our standard vet checks, and ones that are not prone to be sound may check out just fine.  That's where it gets tricky.

Often unsoundness issues pertain to soft tissue.

There are several reasons for this.  One of the biggest reasons is that often unsoundness issues pertain to soft tissue; strains, sprains, tears and bruises. Pre-purchase exams do a "that day" check on how the soft tissue is reacting (using flexion tests, palpations and hoof testers, etc.) and then focus ALOT on xrays.  But radiographs don't give you a read on soft tissue for the most part.  And nothing in the pre-purchase exam really tells you how the horse will hold up over hard work; and that's what you REALLY want to know.  

Most of the time when a dressage horse is lame it is related to a strained or pulled suspensory ligament, a sprain, bruise, tear or neurological impairment.  Certainly one would argue that arthritis in the lower hock joint is a "dressage disease."  In other words, it's quite common in dressage horses.  At the same time, it often not a career stopper, is quite manageable; and here again, radiographs often don't directly correlate to the soundness condition as they should.

Some horses want to be sound.

Another reason is that soundness is strongly determined by a horse's temperament.  Sound crazy?  Any wise old horseman will agree.  There are some horses that will go three legged lame if the smallest scratch comes their way, while other tough old battle axes will trot along well into their twenties with sidebone, ringbone, bone chips, arthritis and you name it.  Some horses want to be sound and its a factor that you'll never see in a pre-purchase exam.  It's a quality  that great horses have and horse masters recognize and appreciate it.