I am looking at a 6 year old Appaloosa. I rode him two different days. He was safe, sound, and lovely.
His feet were overgrown with forward heels. He showed up lame in his front right on his PPE (1.5 lameness out of 5). He flexed positive on the right front. X-rayed both fronts which showed mild arthritis in the left coffin. Vet wants to do lameness exam in a week or so once his feet are trimmed properly.
Should I cut my loss now before I put more money into this horse? Is coffin joint arthritis at 6yrs old bad? I would love more opinions?
I think to answer there are lots of questions that need to be answered.
I will start with a huge one, if this horse has to be retired in a year, is this an issue for you? It is for a good chunk of horse owners so admitting that you are not prepared to retire a young horse is a fine thing. Yes, there will be people who remind you that any horse could break tomorrow.
Is this horse currently doing the job that you are buying the horse to do?
How much diagnostics were done to determine where the lameness was coming from? The arthritic changes might be nothing, they might be everything. Maybe the poor thing has a stone bruise.
Is this horse priced accordingly? Are you shopping in a market where you have to accept some issues to be able to get something in your price range?
Right now you have a problem on x-ray that is corresponding with a real-life problem. That’s a no for me. However, it might be fixable, and depending on what the horse is doing now and what you want to do with the horse in the future, it might not be a deal breaker if you can turn it into a problem on x-ray that has no real-life implication.
Personally, I’d walk away but tell the seller that if they get the horses feet fixed and he comes sound you’d be happy to come back and see him again. I don’t like to spend my own money solving other people’s problems.
Was the horse 1.5 lame during the PPE before flexions? You said it was sound when you rode it, so could it have been on pain meds then? A seller that would do that would be a huge red flag to me - what else could they be hiding?
I think this is where a close relationship with your vet comes in handy. Your vet should know what you are expecting to do with this horse and whether or not this will be an issue. It is a little concerning that there are arthritic changes at this age. Does the seller have any previous x-rays of the horse so you can see if these changes have existed for a long time or if they are new?
Personally I’d pass, unless the horse has been doing exactly what you want for quite some time. If it’s green (it should be, at 6), I’d pass.
He could be footy. He could be needing extensive maintenance to walk/trot. He could have been drugged for all of your rides and left on long toes so you’d take a chance on a finding at PPE.
If it’s green, out of shape, or in any way not the exact horse you want as-is, walk. It’s a buyers’ market right now.
FWIW (not very much) - I found hock arthritis through rads (flexed mildly positive) on the PPE for my then 5 yr old, very green horse. I bought him anyway and did a round of Adequan once or twice a year. His hocks have never been a problem and he’s 11 now. We re-did rads this summer and the arthritis has barely progressed despite regular dressage work up the levels.
He was inexpensive and I didn’t have specific plans for him when I bought him. Maybe wasn’t thinking straight because I was grieving the mare I had to put down a month previous. YMMV
Fair point. Thinking back, I also did rads of his front feet and I don’t know what I would have done if there had been coffin bone arthritis. Probably would have based the decision on what my trusted vet doing the PPE said. She was concerned about the hock arthritis, but liked the cut of his jib and it’s not like I was set on going FEI…
