I am considering purchasing a 5yo TB who I have been leasing for the last 3 months. I just got a screenshot from his previous PPE in April that found kissing spines incidentally. I don’t have a copy of the actual rads. PPE says:
“Over riding spinous processes at T14-15. Interspinous narrowing of the mid-cadual thoracic spinous processes with focal impingement and secondary remodeling, T15-T18. These findings are consistent with kissing spine. At this time, the kissing spine does not appear to be causing any pain in this horse as there is no reactions with manipulation/palpation”
Goals for the horse are training level eventing and foxhunting. I board, and this would likely be my only horse for the next ~5 years, so logically I don’t think I should take the chance.
However, this is the sweetest horse with truly the best temperament. I’m pretty attached and I have experience rehabbing other injuries. I’ve ridden classical dressage for the last 10 years, so I’m pretty well versed in getting a horse to work through his back correctly and have experience working horses in hand and double lunging.
The PPE vet didn’t note any signs of back pain, but as I’ve been working with the horse I have noticed some subtle signs that could be problematic. I thought he might have something going on with his SI, so I wasn’t exactly surprised when I saw his old PPE.
Possible back pain symptoms:
- Slightly girthy (just finished treatment for ulcers, is much better but not 100%)
- Tail swish when removing saddle, but no reaction to back palpation before or after riding
- Very resistant to doing belly lifts
- General laziness- hard to keep in front of your leg
- Weak topline, resists going round under saddle but goes round nicely with side reins on the lunge.
- Difficulty picking up and maintaining canter, especially right lead
- Generally just doesn’t feel very athletic/dynamic
This horse is very green, so the above symptoms could easily be explained as a lazy green horse with poor topline conditioning. He was track broke as a 2yo, but never raced. He sat in a field for a couple years, and then had 90 days of pro training earlier this year. I have only had him in full work for 1 month, and have seen a lot of progress with his topline so far.
He had a month off in October due to grade 4 ulcers found after a colic episode. I recently had his teeth done, and he had several sharp points with ulcers in his cheeks. He was very stoic throughout, and only displayed mild resistance under saddle- head tossing and an occasional mild refusal to go forward- when he was likely in a lot of pain from these issues. He has since scoped clean, and these behavioral issues have been resolved. I’m worried we could be missing signs of pain due to his good temperament and stoic nature.
His owner wants to sell, so if I don’t buy him now she is going to be marketing him. She thinks he’s fine and this is an incidental finding since the PPE vet indicated that he was asymptomatic. I guess I’m trying to decide what to do between these next steps:
- walk away
- keep leasing and update his program to include more rehab exercises and see how much improvement I can get while his owner is marketing him for sale. If he doesn’t sell, I can decide if I want to pursue a PPE after seeing if we can make progress.
- get professional opinions from people I trust, including my old dressage trainer and longtime trusted vet who does chiro. Would likely cost ~$400.
- do a thorough PPE now with an orthopedic vet and then decide
I’m leaning towards #3, but worried that might be a slippery slope of feeling even more invested in this horse. I’m also worried he would regress with his new owners if he sells, since I wouldn’t be able to explain his current program to them. I don’t know if the owner is planning to disclose his previous PPE findings to prospective buyers.
If I bought him, there are a lot more changes I would want to make including saddle fit, increasing turnout, and improving his nutrition program. I’m not sure how much progress to expect without making these changes, especially the saddle fit. There are no huge problems I can see with the saddle I’m riding in now, but it was flocked for a different horse with some asymmetries and hasn’t been fitted to him by a pro. It’s not my saddle, so I can’t make any changes.
WWYD in this situation? Any ideas on how to differentiate symptoms of green/lazy/poor conditioning and mild back pain?
Sorry this seems to be a lovely horse, but there are many lovely horses out there that don’t come with this type of baggage. Thinking about your 5-year statement, if this means you’d be looking to sell in 5 years - run faster. Maybe he would still be described as asymptomatic, but then you’re still tasked with selling a “broken” horse that is 5 years older. If your plan is that in 5 years you’d be able to afford a 2nd riding horse and could comfortably retire this one, well, I’d still run because you don’t know whether you’re going to get a month of usefulness from this horse or closer to 5 years of usefulness. It’s a crap shoot and the dice are weighted.
