Start with flexions. If anything goes really sideways “Thanks, we are stopping here.” Otherwise continue.
Next xray hocks, one shot at a time. If anything is really weird “Thanks, we are stopping here.” Otherwise, continue.
Next xray feet, fronts first. If anything is really weird “Thanks we are stopping here.” Otherwise continue.
And on and on and on. You don’t run the full gamut and then decide. Each step is a yes/no answer.
It all depends. I would never inject just to inject. The majority of the horses I pull go right into some type of light work, very few get let down. If i’m hacking out and they tell me their hocks might be sore, i’ll have the vet out and we’ll proceed accordingly. I do find that most Thoroughbreds need their hocks injected at some point.
Anecdotal: The horses who run on Poly seem to be more sore than the horses who run on dirt or turf. Our local poly track is fast, but deep, and I don’t think the base is consistent so there is a lot of wear and tear.
Your vet should have some ideas of potential problem areas based on conformation and flexions. If the horse has bench knees? I would x-ray the knees. Fluid over stifles? X-ray those.
Hocks have always seemed the most likely to have issues but also the easiest to treat, so I am not sure I would x-ray unless the vet sees something worth worrying about. Feet seem a good investment to x-ray, and you can often get a fair bit of pastern. Front Pasterns and fetlocks seem to be what our local track destroyed…if looking at a horse from that track I would x-ray those two joints first…I never did find a horse that didn’t have a chip/fracture/something tragic. (that track no longer exists thank goodness) but tell your vet what track it ran at and what sort of program it has been in. It may really help them help you.
There has been some talk on a few Podcasts that new research shows vets are moving away from this mindset, and going more toward oral or injection medications and body work etc to help the overall soundness of the horse, thus not requiring injections.
They are trying to change the “inject for the sake of it” mentality.
That makes sense. My approach is similar, I wasn’t sure if you meant that you were finding that most needed hock injections moving into their new job as a matter of course. It’s always interesting to get a peek into others programs!
That’s typically my approach, too, and I’m lucky to work with a vet likeminded. There are still some instances where injecting is the best course of action. I tend to appreciate a good, hardknocking warhorse, so dry hocks are pretty common. I don’t ever inject without fresh imagery.
This is so interesting that you say this because I’ve found it to be true as well. One I got was a totally sore wreck from running on poly, and his connections say he was never like that before he went to Turfway for the winter. He bounced back incredibly well with some time and bodywork, but I had never made the connection to poly until now.
It was sort of misleading the way I typed it. I’m just not ever surprised when I hear my vet recommend injecting hocks on a Thoroughbred who ran 30+ times.
Again, I don’t ever inject without rads.
There are a lot of horses that prefer the poly but it wrecks their bodies! It’s not unusual to see longer gaps between races when they’re running poly. Poly requires different maintenance for the pony horses as well.
If i pull one off poly it gets bemered and turned out immediately. Those are the horses that I don’t put back into work immediately. They need time.
What constitutes “really weird”? I would expect many a horse to come up with some issue (hock arthritis or NPA or thin soles etc). Again this is only for my curiosity - I feel similar to RAyers in that something big enough to be a real issue should be apparent on a physical exam (barring any drugs masking things).
Well there was a coffin bone fracture on a 2 year old warmblood I PPEed. He was sound, but obviously not in work. That isn’t an OTTB though.
“Really weird” is up to the buyer. I accepted some strange findings on my current mare because I don’t have world beater aspirations. Strange hock remodeling (from a former case of cellulitis i later found out after getting in touch with former connections) and mild spinous process thickening but with good gaps.
A bone chip, bone cyst, pins in a leg, fracture - all of those could have me immediately stopping a vetting on a currently sound horse depending on the exact situation/finding.
Just saw this shared on FB, someone in my area bought an OTTB unseen off FB from a rehoming page, horse has a fracture in the cannon bone. Thought it was a shin splint, trusted the connections. Horse wasn’t sound, vet came out.
So, just a warning.
I would definitely do neck and back x-rays. After my recent OTTB purchase, I learned the hard way that even the most reputable sellers don’t always tell the truth or conveniently “forget” to mention known issues. After the horse had two falls while riding, I reached out to the previous owner (separate from the seller) to ask what the heck was going on. It turns out this had been an issue since he’s been off the track (over 3 years) and the only thing they could point it to was his neck arthritis (not mentioned during the buying process). If I had done a more thorough PPE, I would have passed.
This situation blows, I’m sorry. Wishing you and your horse the best
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