Hock injections

[Foxlover46]

Hi just wondered if you could offer some advice please .
Looking to buy daughter a pony that she can compete a bit higher on , not anything to take on the work more local show jumps and XC sort of thing.
Have seen a gorgeous mare who is happily jumping 80/90 and loves it but the looks of it , owner told me she showed slight signs of arthritis and had her hocks injected recently but would
Only need them doing every 1/2 years going forward.
Am I right In thinking it wouldn't be fair to buy her with the intention of jumping regular?
I've never had a horse whose needed hock jabs so have been googling like mad for advice
thank you

Hock injections are very common especially amongst competition horses however if she’s only recently had them done for the first time the owner can’t possibly know that she’ll only need them being done every couple of years in the future. If she’s showing signs of arthritis now - how old is she - and she’s only doing 80/90 which isn’t very taxing for most horses then that’s not a good sign for long term soundness

Agree with pp. dodge that bullet and huge vet bill.

Thank you both
She's a lovely mare , the owner hasn't told me her age yet I was going to ask at the viewing which is a long few hours away too.
I am grateful for your advice I have no clue how much the injections are as never thankfully needed them , but I was wary at the thought of arthritis and the long term management , the pony has got the biggest jump bless her

Hock injections are at least £500 - and you wouldn’t get them covered by insurance. A lot of high level competition horses have them done yearly as part of their ongoing maintenance but we’re talking jumping a lot bigger than 80/90. Some horses respond really well and can be happy for ages before they need to be redone - for others the effects might start wearing off after 3 months or so. And how old a horse is is absolutely critical information for all sorts be of reasons that you need to know well before you get to the viewing stage.

I don't know why I didn't ask age , she's 17

Yeah I don't think it's a great sign that she's having arthritic changes just from jumping 80-90s. 17 is not super old for a pony either but at that age I wouldn't have thought things will be getting significantly better for her, it's probably the beginning of going downhill and needing a quieter life at the very least.

My story with hock arthritis in a pony that really wasn't the 'type' (cobby pony that had never jumped more than 50cm in her life!) didn't end super happily TBH. The first set of injections she had did work well and she was sound for a while but subtle changes crept back in fairly quickly and she needed to be reinjected less than a year later. The second set of injections worked much less well and she ended up retired to the field not long after that, and sadly PTS a year later as it was increasingly difficult to keep her even field sound by that point and the poor thing was miserable. Now TBF this mare was riddled with confirmation faults and other issues and could barely string a totally sound 4 weeks together so that won't be the outcome for all horses that are injected of course but if it's got to the stage where she's clearly in pain to need the infections (as I doubt anyone is routinely jabbing hocks on an 'ordinary' non lame horse) I'd be doubtful it will really be the long term solution the owner is representing it as. Especially if you're wanting to have her in relatively heavy work and do lots of jumping...

@maxelly I'm sorry to hear that happened with your pony.
Honestly my concerns were pretty much how you've explained them here too , and previous replies aswell about the jump height not being over taxing.
Then add in my daughter will get attached like she always does so there's the upset that will come with it further down the line.
My friend has a Welsh b who's 25 and still loves jumping a meter for fun so if it wasn't for the arthritis I wouldn't have worried about the age.
My boy is 16 but he is just a happy hacker for me.
Thank you so much for replying and everyone else it's helped me to think with my head properly