If you were purchasing an OTTB in the $4-6k range, how comprehensive of a PPE would you do personally? Or would you even do one? Assume horse will be used for eventing, probably Novice/Training level if rider can get up the courage to do it again. It’s been so long since I looked at horses and I want to be sure I’m being careful. I know a PPE can’t tell the future but can at least give you a baseline, right? Thanks in advance.
Has the horse done anything (the more the horse has done, the less concerned I am about films)? Or just barely been restarted (this is what I’m assuming based upon price point)? Was a PPE done initially? I cannot afford to take the risk, so I do a basic PPE with films of feet/ankles and hocks.
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For that price range, definitely do a PPE. What is your overall budget, once it is all in – buying the horse, vetting the horse, and shipping the horse? That would change my answer.
Baseline for me, if the horse moved soundly, would be fetlocks, knees, and stifles. If the horse was a little rough or gimpy, I’d add hooves and hocks.
For OTTBs that have raced recently, I don’t really put much weight at all in flexions.
If you have the budget for it, neck and spine. Expect C5/C6 abnormalities but anything else would be a red flag for me.
Caveat - I don’t do PPEs normally, but I also don’t buy them in that price range. Are you buying one that is lightly restarted?
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My thought on a PPE is that if nothing else it gives me a baseline of what the horse was when I bought it. It is the start of the relationship between this horse and my vet.
The amount of X-rays and other such stuff would depend on how the general exam was going.
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Thank you for your well thought out answers and subsequent questions. I haven’t started looking yet, to be honest. I would assume for that budget I’d be able to find something lightly restarted, but not competing yet. 
I need to figure out an “all in” budget, I guess. Shipping won’t be much as I’m shopping locally, but I have been out of the game so long that I don’t really know what films cost nowadays. I would probably be able to spend an extra $1000 on shipping/vetting.
That’s a pretty good estimate based on our recent purchase of a lightly started 4yo OTTB who last raced in April. Purchase price was $6K, trailering by owner was just under $200. Our PPE was $295 then we got xrays of feet, ankles and hocks which totaled $600 ($50 per film). The PPE was a pretty penny but worth it for peace of mind and for our vet to have a baseline for future reference. Our/my husband’s goal is similar to yours–eventing up to training level.
Since we haven’t been showing this year, our horse fund has basically gone towards new horse stuff.
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I typically don’t do a PPE in that price range…and especially would not if I was seeing them in person. I typically get a base line exams done by my own vet when I get them home.
i don’t think there is a right or wrong answer.
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Hocks, stifles, and front feet are a bare minimum for me. I also want to look at anything that is structurally questionable. Current mount is pigeon-toed so I wanted fetlocks and ankles just to make sure nothing looked suspect.
Even doing just those x-rays my PPEs have ran ~$1,000 and my budget has been similar. I really wanted to do neck and back this time around but had a horse fail his PPE on the final set of rads, which ate $1,200 of my budget so things were tighter when I found my keeper.
I would do a PPE.
It’s easier to buy a horse than to sell one. It gets even more difficult if there is a problem.
Fractured sesamoids come to mind. Often quite sound, until…
Based on recent experience, decide what your “no go” discoveries would be before deciding what to X-ray, how far to go, and what order things are done in. Have that discussion with the PPE vet before you start (especially if you won’t be physically present). It would also depend on age of horse, racing history, how long since it last raced, and how it’s currently moving. If it was a war horse and retired sound, I’d have less concerns that one that never ran or only ran a few times. I’ve watched lots of OTTB sales videos recently and a lot of them look questionably sound so I would be doing a more thorough PPE to determine if that was most likely just body muscle soreness or underlying problems. A cheap horse costs as much to own as an expensive one.
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I never used to do PPEs on OTTBs in lower price ranges. But unless you have a big farm to turn out a bunch of retired horses long term, it is really best to know what you are buying no matter what price range you are looking at. Because some things just aren’t fixable and some are only fixable at a great cost…a cost most likely more than that purchase price. I would rather have as many answers as possible before I buy my next horse.
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In that price bracket, the PPE is mostly related to your situation. If you are fine (emotionally and monetarily) retiring this one and starting over with another in 6 months, you can skip the PPE. If not, don’t.
In your budget, don’t assume the first horse will pass the PPE. You may have to pay for several exams before you buy one.
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I do. At the least you can just X ray anything that shows up in the flexions. Or you could xray the joints that are more likely to have issues. Hocks, stifles. I would not to back unless you are at a clinic since they are hard to get good images in the field.
Are you planning on re selling? Or, even if you’re not planning it, is there an alternate timeline that you would end up selling the horse? That would be a big reason for me to do a PPE. Many buyers will feel at ease if you already have a set of xrays.
Since you are looking for a lower level mount, there are a lot of things I would brush off IF the horse’s brain and temperament is what you want. But you would at least have information on what to watch out for.
I buy over a 100+ tb’s a year in my resale business and I don’t do PPE’s but my eye is excellent, I buy from known connections and I have extensive experience looking for soundness issues. Knock wood it rarely goes wrong. That being said I would say that 90% of my buyers do PPE’s here. Your general PPE in the midatlantic area is going to run around $400 for basic which gets you heart, lungs, eyes, flexions, lunging, etc. Xrays are typically only taken by joint by most sport horse vets in the Midatlantic area and it’s $250 a joint some discounts for multiple joints. They want to take all the views because a vet is liable if a view isn’t taken and something is later found.
If you ask me I would take ankles and knees myself. I have probably been involved in 1000+ vettings and rarely do you find an issue in the feet of a sound tb coming off the track. It’s helpful to have angles for a farrier but not sure that is where I would spend my $. Hocks are fairly easy to maintain so again not my spot where I would spend my money. Most career restricting issues will be found in ankles and knees in my opinion.
Most use flexions as a place to start from when deciding what xrays to take but do keep in mind that Tb’s in the first 30 days post track typically flex positive and almost every single TB I have flexes slightly positive behind because that is just pretty normal for horses coming out of race training. The vet’s comfort level in vetting ottb’s makes a huge difference in my opinion.
:encouragement: I feel this bears repeating – flexions are really not reliable for diagnosing problem areas in actively racing TBs (or TBs fresh from a race). I’ve had all of my TBs flex positive during their baseline examination by my vet once they get home (I do soundness exams every spring during vaccinations, and if I get a new horse I have my vet perform a basic soundness exam for our records). The next year they don’t flex positive at all.
Regarding hooves… You can stack the odds in your favor, by avoiding horses with over-the-top bad farriery (long toes for that “breakover”). Fever rings, bulging toe profile, etc, are all flags of major discomfort and remodeling happening in the hoof.
I find it takes a year to really reverse those bad jobs. That’s a time-line I’m okay with, but not everyone can pay board for a year and have an unrideable horse.
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Something no one does in regards to PPE is to check the head and teeth with x rays. They really aren’t that expensive but can save a lot of of trouble down the road. We had all of our horses x rayed this spring, one had 2 dead teeth and another needs a root canal. Very expensive stuff that has to be done.
Something to keep in mind.
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Thank you all so much for your thoughtful replies. Lots to think about, here.
Absolutely agree! I won’t buy anything with crazy long toes or low heels. Some degree is normal but that kind of foot makes is super hard to maintain a sound horse and is also very hard for resale. You need to study pictures of horses very closely before buying. I want pictures taken from the side so I can evaluate the angles of the feet. I don’t find Tb’s have bad feet but I do find some tracks are known for really poor farriers/bad feet and you need to be on the lookout.
I also try to avoid anything with feet that look like they have white line/major cracks/etc. You got to blow those pictures up and look close haha!!!
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i think you could get a lot of bang for the buck on just flexions. I wouldn’t do a lot in this price range. Hell, I didn’t do a PPE on my 16 year old jumper I spent $10K on as I had been riding him for 2 months and he was jumping great .
This is excellent advice, especially since I had nothing but problems with my last OTTB due to the terrible angles of his feet! I don’t want to go down that road again!
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