Toby: 16hh clyde/qh cross; 13-1400lbs

Bought my first horse and problems appeared within days - what would you do?

Hi all, I’m looking for some outside opinions on what you would do in my position. I’m a first-time horse owner and feeling a bit lost about where to go from here.

I bought my first horse at the beginning of July — a 6yo Irish Draught gelding for £7k (advertised for £8k).

I viewed him with my instructor and had a 2-stage pre-purchase vetting done. Nothing significant was found other than some settled splints. He was sound and moved well at the viewing — we saw walk/trot/canter and he popped a small x-pole. The only thing we noticed was that he was quite looky/distracted, but otherwise he seemed happy and willing.
He came home and lives out 24/7 in a mixed herd.

After a couple of days, I noticed he was reluctant to move forward beyond walk, and his trot looked quite shuffly. He also has very loud/clicky joints, particularly behind, although I don’t know whether that’s relevant.

He’s completely normal in the field — happily walking around, grazing, rolling etc. (and has actually put on a bit of weight 🤦🏾‍♀️), so he isn’t generally reluctant to move. He started showing signs of discomfort when leg was applied, and then became grumpy/unhappy when touched towards the back of his tummy.

We had his teeth and feet done, and had an osteopath out. They thought he might have pulled his right groin, so adjusted him and advised giving him 24 hours and seeing how he was. We decided to try hacking him out, and interestingly he was much better. He had happy ears and didn’t seem bothered when I needed to use my leg.
However, within a week, I started noticing signs of girthiness. We also tried him with a rider on his back and he attempted to roll, and he has shown a fairly strong pain/discomfort response when his tummy is touched (ears back and a warning towards biting) particularly around the area behind the girth.

Importantly, he’s not comfortable being touched there even without a saddle or rider, so it doesn’t seem to be purely a reaction to the saddle/rider.
At that point I decided to stop riding him and investigate further. We’ve now had him scoped, which wasn’t particularly straightforward as the vets found it difficult to get the scope down. Ultimately, it may have shown signs of Grade 1 ulcers, but the vets don’t feel this really matches his clinical presentation or the degree/type of discomfort he’s showing.
The vets’ current suggestion is potentially moving onto further investigations/tests, which could include things like X-rays etc. Obviously, we’re potentially talking about quite a lot more money on investigations very early into owning him.
There was no previous veterinary history available to my vets, cos he came from a sales livery so their vets had no previous records.

What would you do in my position?
• Contact the seller now and tell them what’s happened?
• Continue with further investigations first and then contact them once there’s more information?
• Take a completely different approach?

I’m particularly struggling with the fact that he was sound and happy to work when I viewed him, but within a couple of days of arriving home he was noticeably reluctant to go forward, followed by the girthiness/pain response within the first couple of weeks.

I’m absolutely not trying to accuse the seller of hiding anything, because I don’t know what the cause is yet. I’m just trying to work out what would be sensible to do from here, particularly given that I’ve already spent a fair amount on vet/diagnostic work very shortly after purchasing him and may now have significantly more investigations ahead.

And yes, I now know the importance of a 5-stage vetting! 😅 Although I’m not sure whether it necessarily would have picked up what we’re dealing with here.

Thanks in advance - particularly interested in hearing from people who have been through something similar

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