Do any horses have clean hock x-rays?

[dixie]

After what seems like horse hunting for an age and having 3 horses vetted - all 3 have failed on their hock x-rays.
2 were 11 yrs old and the most recent 8yrs. The last one wasn't actually lame but the vet had a quiet word with me afterwards and said "absolutely" not to buy this horse.
I've now agreed to buy another horse and am waiting for the vetting and xrays next week (hocks and front feet).
However, since seeing and agreeing to buy and putting a 10% deposit down (its a dealer) I have dug about a bit and found out from a previous owner that this horse whilst passing his 5 stage 2 yrs ago he had lesions on his hocks - he would have been 6 then and does seem to have been sound since by looking at his BS record.
So, I'm in a dilemma as to whether to pull out now and potentially lose my deposit or to carry on and see what the vet says - the vetting will be slightly less than the deposit and if its a major fail at least I'll get my deposit back. The hocks could have settled since then?
So this is either an extremely bad run of luck or am I expecting too much to have clean hock x-rays - what do people think?

 

[paddi22]

One of mine has hock arthrtis and events away. I remeber the vets hospital saying you can xray most horses over a certain ago and something will show on the hocks. Might be worth getting vetting doen is you really like the horse. the fact thats its out happily competing would stand to it

 

[be positive]

I think it depends on what you are buying the horse for, I was once advised by a vet to only xray if there was a reason to do so, either something not quite right at vetting, although you may just pull out if that obvious, or because of insurance requirements, I think it very likely that most horses of a certain age will show some slight changes on xrays and that only by having previous xrays to compare will the full picture be clear, that or a clinical reason to xray in the first place, so would be a little hesitant to write off a horse with no breaks in it's performance record and no clinical signs of a problem on a single set of xrays and a possibly over cautious vet.

With the one you are buying now I would want to know where it has been since it was sold and why it is with a dealer as that may suggest it has been difficult to sell privately for some reason.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

I don't think you aren't expecting to much asking for clean hock x-rays!
A slight titch of anything and i'd be right out of it specially if paying a big sum.. i'd wait for the perfect horse to come along that you don't have to worry about. I'd constantly be thinking about it, he bucked 'omg is that as of his hocks' refuses a jump 'omg is that his hocks hurting' and if they have unclean hock x-rays, have they been compensating elsewhere?! but then again, I am paranoid (lol) specially if I know theres a problem that could get worse.

Do any horses have clean hock x-rays.. well my 9yr old gelding had clean hock x-rays, fetlocks and clean back x-rays taken 10 months ago (and 2 more lots taken in 2016 as had a old boney lump and also very clean) and at the time my vet was really surprised how clean his joints were. We had done up to 1.20m cross country and 3' hunter trials and lots of funrides etc but he wasn't backed until just before 5 so nice and mature, hes only 14.2.
He said most horses they x-ray these days have something show up. My previous mare had hideous arthritis hocks at 8 and had never been worked, vet said they would of been most probably bred into her (tb x appy) but when a horse is on a circle or jumping he said the majority of the joint that takes the strain is the hocks.. and I also believe so many horses are worked to young which doesn't help.

 

[SEL]

Given the problems I've had with mine I'd be cautious going with anything that has arthritic changes if they're young. Likely juvenile arthritis because she was only 6 and barely in work when I had the hock x-rays done.

 

[ihatework]

Yes horses do have clean hock X-rays.

But plenty don’t - it’s trying to decide if unclean X-rays are clinically significant or not. It’s not easy!

Then you stumble into insurance issues if you find something on X-ray.