I searched the forum but most of the posts about fusing hocks are quite a bit older. I’m currently leasing a 8 year old unraced TB with a wonderful personality, great to ride, but he came up lame a few weeks ago. Turns out his hocks are about 50% fused. We injected and he is sound currently, but now having issues with his right stifle catching. Vet (who I’m required to use for the lease, not my preference necessarily) is thinking with strengthening it should improve. My lease is up in December and I was hoping to purchase him. I’ve had two vets tell me not to buy him, and one who doesn’t think it’s a big deal. I already have a complex injury going on with my mare and I really need something that isn’t going to break on me. I know that once hocks are fused it isn’t a big deal, but if they don’t fully fuse it can be an issue. Would you take this risk? He is a good deal money wise but not a great deal, though maybe I could negotiate due to the hocks. I’m in Colorado so there isn’t an abundance of affordable 2’6”/2’9” horses, which is what he has done in the past and would be my plan for him long term.
That’s young for the joints to fuse and although they tend to be more comfortable once they’re completely fused, I have to wonder what about this horse’s conformation and life so far has caused that problem, and what kind of compensatory wear patterns might follow.
I’m with the vets who said pass.
" When in doubt, don’t" is best advice, especially when buying horses.
As Grandma used to say, “why borrow trouble?”
Pass.
Sometimes they never fuse completely, and he’s young for this to be starting already.
I would be more worried about the stifle. Hocks are very “treatable”. Many things you can put in there besides steroids and NSAIDs are generally effective. We always say horses don’t get retired because of hocks. But you probably are looking at ongoing maintenance. Stifles can be a haunting problem. Hard to accurately diagnose, less responsive to treatment. Fusing hocks would be unlikely to present as a “he came up lame” issue. More just generalized, possibly increasing creakiness and loss of form. I would investigate the stifle a bit more before making a commitment. Or perhaps you could extend your lease and let the horse’s progress be the deciding factor. Good luck!
Depending on the horse’s price and your intended use, the hocks may or may not bother me. I think we’d all be surprised how many sound, young-ish horses have fused or fusing hocks…but we don’t x-ray the sound ones nearly as often as we do the unsound ones. 
Once the hocks have fused, they rarely cause significant discomfort, and hock pain is very manageable.
The stifle issue, though, would be a hard pass for me.
Yeah, unfortunately for me it would be a pass. It’s a total toss up when the hocks will actually fuse. I was told a couple years with my guy.
I love my gelding soooo so much, but if I had known his hocks were fusing I would not have purchased him. The hocks have gone hand-in-hand with stifle issues for him too, and he also has a pretty chronically sore back that I’m sure is due in part to his hocks. I have rads dating back to 2017 with the hocks clearly fusing, and they still haven’t fused to this day, so they’ve been fusing for at least 7 years now. I will forever hope that they finish fusing and he gets sounder…but he’s 17 now so probably by the time they really do fuse he’ll be retired.
I will say though, my friend had a mare going novice/training easily with lovely dressage scores and didn’t find out her hocks were fused until she tried to do injections for maintenance, and the vet had a very difficult time finding a spot for the needle.
Had two with hock arthritis and they where both lame. For me, based on my expérience, it would be a hard pass. Stifles are an even worse issue so i would not buy this horse.
The fusing hocks would be of zero concern to me. That’s very easily managed with injections when they need them, and other therapies such as Equioxx, PEMF, etc.
However, the catching stifle would cause me to do a hard pass. Stifle issues are a lot trickier to deal with. They do tend to “grow out” of them at that age, but not always, and that would be the risk that I wouldn’t want to deal with.
This is just your experience, but there are horses out there that are partially fused that injections can’t get in and Equioxx/pemf wouldn’t get them sound, either. I own one. My vet says there’s lots of them.
PASS •
Good luck with your search for a new horse ~ Jingles & AO ~
Mine too-my gelding is sound enough for light work, but he is very serviceably sound for light work, not fully sound. He will always have a slightly shorter step with the leg that has the worse hock, and I had to give up competing him because the varied terrain was too tough for him.
I really only keep him in work at all because, ya know, motion is lotion.
If I had another horse that I discovered had fusing hocks then so be it, but I would never purchase one knowing the hocks were fusing unless I guess they were already fully fused and the horse was sound as is.
Yes, that has been my experience … which is what the OP asked for: opinions. I’ve had three different horses with fusing hocks and they’ve all stayed in the barrel pen with appropriate management.
LSS. It’s best not to buy a problem as enough will show up later. Because horses.
LSSSL. Sometimes you have to buy a problem in order to get other attributes. In that case it’s better if the problem is known to be manageable and the horse is already performing at or greater than the level you want to do.
With respect to fusing hocks specifically.
I recently found out that my horse’s hocks are fusing. He’s 14, pretty straight behind, and has historically been weaker on the RH. He also has periodic episodes of falling out behind; I thought this was stifle, but am now wondering if it was the hock catching somehow and him going “ouch.” We spent the spring chasing an SI issue that was probably related to the hocks (in hindsight) and had him pretty comfortable until I attempted to show on the grass with caulks. He slipped behind the second day and after that he really didn’t want to jump at all. We treated the SI (and he was fine) then treated the SI and the back after he did something to himself in his paddock and started him back with stretchy lunging a week or so later whereupon he was fine until he wasn’t.
So we had the vet back out. Although he flexes sound on both hocks, she noticed that the range of motion was less than ideal while she was flexing his hocks. We did radiographs and found the fusing hocks on both hinds, though the right is more fused and probably less problematic WRT pain at the moment. There is not enough space in there to do hock injections. She advised light riding, NSAIDs as needed for comfort, and waiting. Also listening to the horse and doing what he feels like on a given day (OK he mostly feels like eating, but you get my drift). After considering the amount of fusing that had already occurred, she went ahead and gave him a dose of OsPhos which should help with the pain, but it takes about 45 days for maximum effect. Apparently the OsPhos isn’t recommended if the fusing isn’t far along bc it can slow down the progress.
She seemed actually pretty optimistic, and this isn’t an especially optimistic vet (perhaps optimistic vet is an oxymoron?), but after doing some Dr. Google research, I am less hopeful. Apparently if they are totally fused, you are good to go, but they don’t always fuse totally.
YMMV
I had one too
I join the pass club, I would consider purchasing him for light hacks if the price was really cheap but I understand you’d like to jump a bit too
I’d pass. I played that game before.
Training level eventer. Bought him off the track and didn’t vet because he was 500$ and I was nineteen. Ran VHT in the fall, planning a bump up to preliminary. Had vet out for a check because he was a touch uncomfortable after the event. Hocks fusing, okay.
His hocks never did fully fuse. He didn’t go preliminary. We tried a lot and he was just NQR sometimes. Finally, just sold him as servicably sound with a full disclosure. He did run around BN/N with his new owner many years later.
I would not do it again.
