Market is tough to find the perfect horse out there…let alone pass a PPE or be a kind/gentle soul with experience…any positive stories on failed PPE’s but still went on to be successful h/j types in low level competion?
I can tell you that absolutely none of my horses would pass a PPE. To me, the PPE tells me what’s wrong (and yeah, something is going to be wrong. If there isn’t, get a different vet) and then I decide if I can manage that issue.
11 Likes
My first show pony had the worst navicular x-rays any vet had ever seen at the time. He went on to show until his mid 20s with no maintenance other than front pads.
My first Grand Prix horse didn’t vet well. Vet told us not to buy him. He was 11 at the time. Showed with me through 1.50m until he was 14/15 and then showed in the children’s and adult jumpers into his 20s.
I’ve had more luck with the horses who had a problem in their vetting staying sound than the ones with beautiful flexions and x-rays so for me it usually comes down to whether or not the horse is sound and it is just something that could be an issue, or if it is unsound now, if it is competing at the level I want, what the treatment and maintenance options are if it is a problem, and if I like the horse enough to take the gamble.
1 Like
If they are currently doing the intended work and sound that is a good sign. I have an event horse as a kid w rotated coffin bones from foundering as a youngster - never took a lame step. Next horse was $$$ - vetted at a top vet clinic and passed w flying colors - and was always lame w something - abscess, bruise, NQR behind unless kept very fit. He was young when purchased and grew quite a bit.
1 Like
This is my thought too.
The PPE is there for you to know what the horse in front of you is at that moment.
If the horse is doing the job you want it to do all while sound and happy then no reason to let some ugly X-rays or some other not quite perfect result make you say no to the purchase.
3 Likes
My pony coughed during the PPE. The vet told me to pass, he likely had heaves. I bought him. I owned him until he was 31. He never coughed again. He never had heaves.
7 Likes
Agree with everyone else. My horse “failed” his PPE, with an issue that was disclosed. Both my vet and New Bolton (whom I sent the xrays to) agreed that he was showing at a higher level than I will EVER, and he is a “good a risk as any” horse. 
I continue with maintenance and he is sound and happy.
I am so glad that other buyers passed. It reduced his price and IMO - I got a steal of a deal (he was still expensive but it landed him in my price zone).
3 Likes
This is the right answer. If you’re looking for a prospect, you can’t think of the PPE as pass/fail, but instead come up with a list of things that are manageable vs. things that are absolute dealbreakers. Maybe you’re okay with managing some hock arthritis in a teen or a horse that needs corrective shoeing, but a horse with a low grade heart murmur is a walk away immediately.
4 Likes
A PPE isn’t pass/fail. I want to make this into a bumper sticker or billboard.
A PPE, done by a good vet, is evaluating the relative risk of the horse doing the job that you want it to do. Number one indicator of that: is the horse currently, happily, doing the job with (or without) a level of maintenance that aligns with your personal risk tolerance?
8 Likes
Perhaps Fail is the wrong wording, how about “High-Risk”… most issues in regards to OCD. Do u walk away or investigate further/look to operate?
Looking for positive outcomes on youngsters that don’t have the mileage to back up the issues ATM.
Yes.
Even that can depend… PPEd a horse extensively at 7, bought him, only noted issue was he coughed twice at the outset of the ride (never had any issues with that in 16 years with him btw) but 4 years into owning him with some hard to pin down lameness, a billion diagnostics: OCD lesion in the left elbow. Unfortunately they’re not always where you look
My first horse didn’t “fail” per say but he had some abnormal x-rays and when we bought him he was only 6 so the vet wasn’t wildly thrilled. But I’d already been riding him on loan and was 12 and in love with him so my parents bought him anyway.
He didn’t have a single lame or sick day until he was 23 and went barefoot his entire life. We did everything — showjumping, pony camp, ll eventing, fox hunting, hacking on roads — and he was always totally fine. At 23, he started getting arthritis in a few of the joints that hadn’t looked great 17 years earlier but honestly after that long I think the vet would have a hard time saying “told you!” Lol.
That being said, I passed a couple of months ago on a horse that vetted badly that I liked a lot. I know that my first horse was the exception not the rule in many ways, and unless I already had a relationship with a horse, I don’t think I’d take the risk again. I’m not 12 anymore and I’m more cautious now that it’s my money AND I know how much it costs to pay for cushy retirement board!
1 Like
Why?
Respectfully and sincerely (really!), the more “scientific” question would be to ask what the outcome was for anyone who purchased a youngster that didn’t have the mileage to back up the issues ATM. It would still be completely anecdotal but more inclusive of your actual question, I would think. Not just positive, but all outcomes, assuming you’re trying to avoid a buying a lemon and not talk yourself into an unsuitable mount?
Absolutely interested in all comments. 
I bought a young horse with what were supposed to be easily fixable issues in his feet. I euthanized him not quite four years later, shortly after his seventh birthday. There were a multitude of issues related neck/neuro issues. So maybe the feet weren’t the problem, but I still wouldn’t touch a young, unproven horse with issues. He was cheap but I spent over ten times his purchase price trying to fix and diagnose him.
As others have said, a horse doing the job, or more than the job, you want to do might be OK depending on the issues and whether you can maintain the lifestyle it needs.
Having said that, current horse vetted fine, was doing the job, and proceeded to have series of problems. Got that sorted out; he then stepped on a rock at a show not quite two years ago and essentially hasn’t been right since. Currently turned out and hoping for a miracle. He was not cheap.
Horse are always a crapshoot, and baby horses even more so. I’m pretty risk adverse and I’d want an unstarted or barely started horse to be pretty solid in its PPE. A horse already doing its intended job and sound without anything really scary is a different matter.
Several years ago I looked at an incredibly promising late 3 year old gelding that had OCD in both hinds. This had been discovered during a PPE so that buyer had passed, and the owners were fire-saling him. Despite the price reduction he was still $$$.
We sent the rads to a specialist and got the message that had surgery been done earlier it likely wouldn’t have been an issue. Because the horse was older and the OCD was significant the surgery could be successful or it could, as my trainer pointed out, leave me with a eunuch in a field. That was too much risk so I passed.
1 Like
