Splints - would you buy a horse with a big splint on each front leg?

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Cates123

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I'm looking to buy an ex-racer and have seen a young 15.2 who has a lovely attitude but is green in the school. Easy to do in every way but he has quite a few lumps and bump, including 2 rather large splints. My plan with this horse would be to school and have fun over the summer and then possibly sell at the end of the year or next spring - he'd make a fantastic pony club horse for a teenager coming off ponies as he's very quiet but got potential.
My concern is that he would be hard to sell on with obvious splints, even though they seem to give him no bother. I'm not too bothered about making money on him, it's more to have a fun project over the summer and hopefully give him a good start for a second career, but I would need to sell him.

I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on this? Also, can you insurance the legs that have the splints?

Thanks in advance!
 
Mine had a splint when I bought him. Was hard and cold and doesn’t affect him in any way, it’s virtually gone now thankfully
 
I did reject a four year old Arab who had two massive matching splints. Newly backed and ridden away. Gut feeling about matching blemishes in such a young horse. Wondering why it happened, conformation? Overwork? Clumsy, scatty, accident prone? He was sound but I prefer one without.
 
TheMule said:
Are they matching? IE on inside of both limbs at the same height? If so, it's often caused by limb deviations/ poor hoof balance so I'd want to take a good look at the front limb conformation.
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Agree with this. Splints don't bother me at all one at a time, but a matching pair of big ones at a young age rings alarm bells for how straight the leg bones are.
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Not what you are asking about so feel free to ignore this. I'm not sure I'd buy any horse that I knew I would need to sell, but if I did it certainly wouldn't be a TB straight off the track. You really don't know what they'll turn into or what physical issues will come to light until you've had them a few months.
 
ycbm said:
Not what you are asking about so feel free to ignore this. I'm not sure I'd buy any horse that I knew I would need to sell, but if I did it certainly wouldn't be a TB straight off the track. You really don't know what they'll turn into or what physical issues will come to light until you've had them a few months.
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It's a good point. I don't need to sell him financially, i just think he'd not be able to do as much as i want in the future, but would make someone a lovely fun horse. He's had a year off training but the owner ran out of time and had him in the field for the winter and now selling to cover other vet bills. He's always been sound etc, but it's still a concern....he's just such a sweetheart!
 
Cates123 said:
It's a good point. I don't need to sell him financially, i just think he'd not be able to do as much as i want in the future, but would make someone a lovely fun horse. He's had a year off training but the owner ran out of time and had him in the field for the winter and now selling to cover other vet bills. He's always been sound etc, but it's still a concern....he's just such a sweetheart!
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I am slightly biased right now, to say the least, but the horse I've just had PTS at 8 threw a matching pair of giant splints at 4 years old and turned out to have deformed bones and had never been lame for even a day until he was nearly 8. The chances are you'll have no problems at all if you buy him, but if you do it's a right nightmare being stuck with an unsellable horse and nowhere/ no money to keep it.

I can see the temptation, though 🙂
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Meant pragmatically, if you can foot the loss/ deal with the consequences should the worst happen, go for it.

Don’t expect to make a lot off it, but if you’ve got out and about and proven the horse handy at a few RC shows, I’d have thought it would sell on. Just make triple sure there are no other defects though (vices, travel issues, temperament flaws) as that could land you with a tricky one to shift!
 
Oh yes I would but I would if the vet was happy with them .I want X-rays of the front feet and perhaps the pasterns and fetlocks .
lateral imbalance can be the cause of them .
 
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