Glad you figured it out before wasting money and time. To me your situation seemed a bit like desperate seller wanting to offload horse. In this case the initial PPE was the perfect solution.
In the future, my suggestion is to get a quickie PPE at the horse’s home, lease the horse (with legal docs) for a set amount of time, and then ride it as much as you can and document every single issue and potential issue you can fathom. Then have your own vet do a thorough PPE based on your list. Also try and speak with the horse’s farrier if possible. I tried one recently that for some ricidulous reason had front pads removed before being shown for sale. Not sure why seller would think that a tenderfoot is more appealing than one who needs pads, but horse people are crazy as we all know. Shopping for horses is super stressful, so I wish you good luck. I am in the same boat and getting tired of spending my weekends nicely telling people no thank you.
