No suspensory injuries. No post-legged horses. No colic history, no kissing spine, no speshul tack or bitting needs, no weird stuff that is beyond the bandwidth and resources of the older pleasure-rider who works full time and has an hour drive to and from the barn.
Unless the horse has a pretty head, in which case this message might have to be destroyed.
Neck issues. And I think Iām just done buying 4 year olds. Especially warmblood 4 year olds. I want to see what its mature body has been able to do and hold up to. Unfortunately, except for my one red horse who has had a host of medical bills and time off totally unrelated to his PPE results, most of the 7-10 year olds I would go for are way out of my typical budget. Maybe this means Iām on my last horses. Iām getting a bit too old and lame myself for the 5-6 year old shenanigans, but mostly itās the heartbreak of a clean vetting 4yo growing for the next few years and developing problems especially in the neck and spine or feet.
I suspect that as veterinary medicine has progressed, we know more.
It isnāt that there are more unsound horses than previously. It is that now we find out what has been going on with horses all along.
Horses some time ago had all the same issues. We didnāt know it, because a) we werenāt looking and b) we didnāt have a way to look.
And it was unfortunately customary to attribute many of the symptoms to behavior problems. It was a change of mindset to think that a behavior was a reaction to something internal, rather than equine oppositional defiance.
It makes me very sad to think of all the horses put into brutal training programs because they were reacting to spine issues that we couldnāt diagnose in those days.
Now we have to figure out how to make these horses more well and healthy. They can enjoy life, and so can their owners.
100% agree with this. And I think itās really hard for me to come to terms fully with āserviceably sound.ā Accepting any amount of discomfort in our equines is a hard sell, but at some point no more can be done without dumping my 401K, if that makes sense.
Keeping the job appropriate for the level of soundness is key, and being understanding when a horse says āI canātā.
Kissing spine.
For me theyād be a no too because of the expense. I have a pony thatās been in and out of them for years and the cost every 4-5 weeks is a lot. And my farrier really would ārather notā especially in the winter.
Ability to (comfortably) do the job I wanted and cost of treatment/maintenance would determine what I would accept.
My geldingās neck is actually broken is 2 spots (had x-rays), but he vetted sound, otherwise healthy, and the neck break didnāt seem to bother him at all. So i purchased him and its been a non-issue. So just depends, at the end of the day Iām looking for rideable without pain or poverty.
Suspensory, colic surgery, vision issues.
Adding any sort of chip, unless the horse is currently sound and doing the level of work I want to do with the horse.
Personally, I have a lot of things that are deal breakers. I donāt have competitive goals but I want something healthy and kind. A healthy horse can go break a leg 5 minutes later, but Iād rather start with a clean bill of health than a surprise box of possible problems.
My big Nopes are: kissing spine, neurological issues, bad feet, DSL, or hormonal issues.
-KS: Iāve watched several friends struggle to keep their KS sound. Oneās horse has gotten nothing but the best care and is still not right. Horse winds up with a sore back when out of work, but has mental hangups from the pain prior to the KS diagnosis. If any part of the routine gets messed up, theyāre back to square one.
-Neuro. My heart can not handle the likelihood it gets worse and dangerous. Iāve seen wobbly horses get wooblier and it aināt pretty.
-Feet. Maresieās feet went a bit south and it was very annoying. Went from nice solid bare feet to shoes with pads all around due to some rocks. It was way more expensive and way more maintenence. Not that bad considering everything that could go wrong but enough that I donāt want to deal.
-DSL. The two mares I knew where beloved by their owners, and it killed them watching those maresā fetlocks sink. Not interested in watching that happen to my horse.
-Hormonal Issues. Iāve known several mares who needed Regumate (and a couple geldings who needed Depo). That isnāt a substance I want people to have to mess around with (had a mare spit it in my eye) especially not when I can get an animal that suits my needs without.
For me, navicular and former colic issues. Both hard passes based on previous experiences.
Reading some of these othersā¦I have a horse with kissing spine in four vertebrae and he is kept comfy as can be with shockwave once a year, so for me, and this horse, its perfectly fine.
Former soft tissue injuries would scare me as well, though.
For all of those who say āneck/spineā how do you know what a normal spine looks like? How was this ever diagnosed 20 years ago? Itās not a new evolutionary aspect of horses.
The veterinary literature is rife with low numbers and insufficient quantification/statistical analysis to suggest some diagnostic prediction.
I approach this as a person who spends every day in human spine where even after MILLIONS of patient x-rays being analyzed and put into massive databases, we still have NO prediction of what a normal human spine should look like. Too many people are happy and pain free with shitshow spines and too many people have gorgeous rads with debilitation pain. We THINK there a maybe 10 GENERAL spine shapes in humans. Maybe there are just as many in horses? And donāt even get me going about transitional anatomy (the addition or subtraction of vertebrae in humans).
Educate me as to how it is a definitive no for you.
For me, the only hard passes are; 1) insecurity/spookiness of the horse; 2) joint deformity (at the local cartilage level). I general base my purchase on the soundness of the horse I am riding (and I do push them).
Iāll bite!
I specifically will not buy a horse with overlapping processes or signs of remodeling. Kissing spines in that context is a hard no for me, symptomatic or not. I am actually okay with ācloseā processes on an unfit or poorly muscled horse that is sound at the time. Especially just one or two spaces.
For example, here are my TBās X-rays at diagnosis a few years ago. He is the reason I will not consider horses with similar films (ie remodeling, number of processes, etc)
Neck issues that equal a pass for me would be anything that requires injections in the neck as āmaintenanceā, or any history of neuro issues or failure of a field neuro test. But Iām not usually xraying necks as part of a PPE because I just havenāt seen consistent value coming from them in that context.
ETA: I think people tend to make āhard passesā out of issues theyāve dealt with in the past, as this thread illustrates!
Iāll take the insecure spooky/ones, you can have the KS horses.
Everyone has their hard nos. I wonāt buy a grey because honestly? Iām too lazy 
. Probably a worse reason not to buy a horse that a wonky back.
One of my big things for my next go round will be how the horse spent itās youth. I want something that lived out as much as possible for healthy development, especially of the feet.
From thereā¦ no eye issues, no feet issues, no respiratory issuesā¦ as someone else said, nothing Iāve had to deal with in the past. Next horsey needs to present a new problem to tear my hair out over.
Ha ha me as well, no greys! 
But those greys, especially the fine and graceful ones, are so BEAUTIFUL when we finally get them CLEAN.
Glistening like pearls as they drift over lush green pastures. Beautiful.
No greys for me due to melanoma.
I like Greyās in their younger years. When they turn mostly white and flea bitten Iām not a fan.
Plus, the forever worrying about the cancer.
This.
They are easier to spot at night so thatās handy
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
