Worth buying an older horse with arthritis?

[cdunc09]

Hi everyone!

I am looking at a 16 year old Oldenburg gelding and interested in getting him vetted soon. The owners gave me X-rays (from 2022) and it shows that he does have osteoarthritis in both front legs. Hes currently only getting 1/2 a tablet of pain medication when hes being ridden (I’m assuming like Equioxx or something along those lines, but need to double check). I understand at 16, arthritis is common, but I’m really only looking for a horse for casual riding, hacking, and maybe 1-2 lessons per week maximum. No jumping or hard work. Do you think this could be manageable for him or should I pass? I’d be interested in keeping up with a pain medication and possibly getting him on an injection like Adequan as well. The vet I might go with for the vetting mentioned that if he passed the clinical exam, he would suggest another set of x-rays to check if its gotten worse, but considering I dont plan to do hard work with him and hes also fairly inexpensive Im wondering if more X-rays are necessary.

[GraceLikeRain]

Arthritic changes are to be expected and you don’t ride X-rays. That being said, I see horses slow down much more quickly with arthritis up front than in the hind and existing radiographs are a strong indicator that there was pretty notable clinical signs.

I don’t think equiox is a haphazard as needed medication so I’d worry that they are using bute and the stomach ramifications.

A prepurchase with flexions and follow up x rays is a really solid recommendation. Just because you don’t want to jump doesn’t mean that 5 days a week of flatting and hills and lessons may be much more than this horse can handle in short order. Conversely, you may see very stable x rays and have beautiful flexions and then can have more confidence about next steps. The cost of x rays is one of the least expensive investments you can make when there’s any indication of a chronic or acute issue.