What to Expect During a Pre-Purchase Exam
Embarking on the journey of buying your first horse is an exciting experience, but it comes with responsibilities, including ensuring the health and well-being of your prospective equine partner. Typically, the final step before buying a horse is the pre-purchase exam. This is a veterinary evaluation assess a horse’s overall health, soundness, and suitability for your intended purpose. Here’s what you can expect during a PPE:
Selecting a Veterinarian
Choosing a qualified and experienced equine veterinarian to conduct the pre-purchase exam is the first step. Your vet should be knowledgeable about the specific needs and requirements of the discipline you plan to pursue with your horse. If you intend to keep your horse at a training barn, your trainer most likely has a vet who services their whole barn, making them a trustworthy and convenient option.
Physical Examination
The vet will begin with a thorough physical examination, assessing the horse’s overall condition, body condition score, and any visible signs of illness or injury. This examination includes an evaluation of the eyes, ears, teeth, heart, lungs, and skin. Depending on your vets findings during this initial examination, they may recommend additional tests.
Flexion Tests
Flexion tests involve the controlled stressing of joints to detect any signs of lameness or stiffness. The vet will hold specific joints in a flexed position for an extended period of time before lunging to see how it affects the horse’s movement. They will lunge on both hard and soft ground to assess soundness. These tests are crucial for assessing the horse’s flexibility and joint health. Based on the horse’s performance in a flexion test, the vet may recommend chiropractic work or hyaluronic acid injections in certain joints to reduce stiffness and soreness and improve movement.
Hoof Evaluation
The veterinarian will then inspect the horse’s hooves for any signs of lameness, imbalance, or abnormalities. This includes using hoof testers to look for tenderness or sore spots on the sole of each hoof, or, in some cases, taking x-rays to assess the angles of hoof bones. These x-rays should then be shown to your farrier so they can pursue corrective shoeing.
Diagnostic Imaging
Depending on the vet’s findings and your budget, they may recommend additional diagnostic imaging such as X-rays or ultrasounds on the legs or spine. These images can reveal hidden issues such as ringbone, bone chips, or kissing spine. Unfortunately, in most cases, issues such as these are red flags for vets and prospective buyers as they can be expensive to treat and often lead to early retirement. However, your vet will give their opinion on the severity of such conditions and decide whether or not they can be reasonably managed.
Blood Work
Sometimes blood work is recommended to identify any underlying health conditions as well as to screen for infectious diseases. Even if you choose not to do a full panel of blood work, a coggins test is recommended as many barns will require a negative coggins result for new horses.
Behavioral Assessment
Throughout the exam, the vet will observe the horse’s behavior, temperament, and response to handling. This is essential for evaluating the horse’s suitability for your intended use and gauging their overall demeanor.
Detailed Report and Recommendations
Following the examination, the veterinarian will provide you with a detailed report outlining their findings. This report will also include recommendations, potential concerns, any x-rays, and an overall assessment of the horse’s health and soundness. Should you choose to buy the horse, save this report for future reference in order to gauge any improvements or regressions in the horse’s condition.
Decision-Making
Armed with the information from the pre-purchase exam, you can make an informed decision about whether to proceed with the purchase, renegotiate the terms based on the vet’s findings, or, in some cases, reconsider the purchase altogether.
It’s important to approach a pre-purchase exam with realistic expectations. No horse is perfect, and the goal is to understand the horse’s current health status and any potential limitations they may have. Open communication with the veterinarian and the seller as well as careful consideration of the vet’s recommendations will guide you in making a well-informed decision, ensuring a positive start to your journey as a horse owner.