To pre-purchase or not to pre-purchase, that is the question

[Bogie]

@bornfreenowexpensive

I probably don’t do a PPE more often than I do but a lot depends on You. Your goals. Your situation.

What also REALLY matters to me is who I can get to do the PPE. I’m more likely to do one if my own vet or a vet that I know and trust can do it. I put much much less weight and benefit on a PPE by some random vet.

And lastly…I NEVER view. PPE as some guarantee or anything more than it is… a quick snapshot. So I think whatever you decide is fine as there really is no right answer.

This year Ive seen more people walk away from good horses. Most were very inexperienced people who couldn’t understand what the vet was saying and who didn’t have an experienced horse person (some had trainers who didn’t assist in this way) help them break down what the findings were. They were looking for a vet to say a horse is perfect (which rarely happens). Even vet was shocked they walked away. Others I hear looking for perfect but also not wanting to spend money.

Yes! I typically do a PPE but I feel strongly about using a vet who knows me, knows how my horses live, and knows what I expect from them.

People walk away from horses for strange reasons. My draft x mare went on trial before I bought her. The woman loved her, the trainer loved her, the vet said she was sound but had the “potential” to develop soundness issues in the future because she’s a big girl. Every horse has the potential to develop soundness issues in the future. I bought her instead so I’m glad her vet talked her out of buying “my” horse and doing a complete PPE on her for me.

My OTTB didn’t get a full PPE. I’d had him as a foster for six months and I knew he’d hold up to the work I wanted to do because I was riding him five days a week and was in touch with his racing owner. My vet was out for something else and I asked him what he thought. He ran his hands over his legs and said, “I’ve always liked this horse.” That was 14 years ago.

On the flip side, I almost bought a horse many years ago that had some issues that came up on the x-rays – a coffin bone break that hadn’t healed right. At the time I wanted to event and my vet said to me, “If my daughter wanted to buy the horse to event at prelim and she had young children, I’d tell her to pass.” He was one of the top lameness vets in the country. I didn’t buy the horse. When I finally found a horse I wanted to buy, I had him bless the x-rays. I really trusted his judgment.

[secretariat]

Good posts, good advice. Remember a PPE is data, rarely a hard conclusion or surprise. We don’t PPE if the price of the PPE is more than about 25% of the cost of the horse (!!! - we’ve seen people do $2000 of xrays on a $1000 horse). If the horse is a resale, Xrays are critical as few people will buy without them or if they’re not perfectly clean. For inexpensive OTTB’s, I usually get a cheap onceover by a vet, frequently the track vet, as a second opinion. For imports, we do the whole enchilada and have our local vet review (digital Xrays are AWESOME!). My biggest issue with PPE’s is they show EVERYTHING, and not very many people understand what’s important and what’s not. There’s no such thing as a perfect horse; if there were, I couldn’t afford them.

[Lkramer]

I consider the risks… if I’m buying a $1200 OTTB, I watch it jog and take a chance.
If it’s a made, showing horse, I do flexions and X-ray anything that looks iffy. I’m on the more liberal side regarding PPEs. We’ve sold horses that are very sound and competing that fail PPEs. So much depends on how hard certain vet is flexing them. They can make any horse look unsound if they want!

[Holyhorseshoes]

I would, but I would do a Pre-purchase on a free horse. It is beneficial to know how to maintain the horse and limitations.

[Emerson]

I would absolutely do one, even if just a basic PPE. There are never any guarantees and it’s always a gamble buying any horse but with a PPE you will be making a more informed decision.