Pre-Purchase Exams for Off-Track Thoroughbred Horses

While pre-purchase veterinary exams are a good idea for any prospective horse owner, they are especially important when buying Thoroughbreds that have retired from a racing career. Race training is strenuous and can lead to injuries and conditions that would make a horse unfit for a second career. Arthritis, bone chips, and bowed tendons are only a few of the maladies common to racehorses.

A thorough veterinary examination is recommended for any off-the-track Thoroughbred offered for sale. A veterinarian can usually differentiate between problems caused by race training that will probably resolve with rest and those that might linger, limiting the horse’s performance in a second career.

The veterinarian can also evaluate the horse’s conformation and warn potential buyers of any conditions that could be expected to produce soundness problems in the horse’s new discipline.

Some conformation defects might not lead to lameness under the demands of pleasure riding, but the repeated concussion of race training could lessen the horse’s usable years by stressing skeletal or muscular weaknesses.