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Purchase X-Rays and the German Röntgen Classes

By the Dressage Wiki Editorial Board · Updated 9 July 2026

Contents
  1. What gets x-rayed: the standard sets
  2. The German classes — and what replaced them
  3. Practical rights and mechanics
  4. What x-rays cannot tell you
  5. Sources

Purchase radiographs are a standardised set of x-ray views taken at the pre-purchase examination — from small sets of the feet, fetlocks and hocks to large sets of eighteen or more views adding stifles, back and neck. The German market historically graded them into classes I–IV (the horse’s “TÜV”), a system officially replaced in 2018 by descriptive, risk-based reporting — but the class vocabulary survives in adverts and conversations, so buyers need to speak both. And they need the system’s most important caveat before any of it: radiographs show structure, not pain, in either direction.

X-rays are the part of the pre-purchase examination that generates the most paper, the most negotiation and the most misunderstanding. This page covers the sets, the classification history, the practical rights and windows, and how the dossier system works at auctions — leaving the interpretation of specific findings (OCD, kissing spines, navicular changes) to common findings decoded.

What gets x-rayed: the standard sets

There is no single mandatory set; clinics offer tiers, and the buyer chooses against price and purpose. The conventional architecture:

Small set (~10–12 views). The classic core: lateral views of all four feet including the navicular region, the front fetlocks, and the hocks — the regions where findings most often carry consequences and where the historical German standard sets concentrated.

Medium set (~14–18 views). Adds oblique projections of fetlocks and hocks and typically the stifles — a region increasingly included as its findings gained attention in sport-horse practice. The German guideline’s own standard moved with the practice: the 2018 revision raised the standard examination from fourteen to eighteen views, in the interest of a more informative baseline set.

Large set (18–24+ views). Adds the back (spinous processes, for the kissing-spines question that dressage buyers reasonably ask) and often the neck (cervical facet joints, a topic of growing veterinary attention in dressage horses). Standard at high prices and at the elite auctions, whose dossiers are typically large-set.

Scaling logic mirrors the exam itself: the set should grow with the price and the ambition. A practical floor for a dressage purchase of any seriousness is the small-to-medium set; the marginal cost of additional views while the horse and machine are already together is modest against the information.

The German classes — and what replaced them

For roughly two decades, German purchase radiography ran on the Röntgenleitfaden’s class system, and its vocabulary colonised the whole European market:

Historical classMeaning (paraphrased)
Class IIdeal findings — no deviations from the norm
Class IIFindings deviating from the ideal, but of no expected clinical significance
Class IIIFindings where clinical significance is possible but not probable
Class IVFindings where clinical significance is probable

(Intermediate steps such as II–III were common in practice — formally, the old guideline ran seven classes: four main and three intermediate.) A “class I–II horse” became shorthand for clean x-rays, sellers priced on it, and the classes still appear in adverts today.

The 2018 change. The revised guideline, issued by the German equine-medicine association GPM and effective from the start of 2018, abolished the classes without replacement in favour of descriptive, risk-based reporting: findings matching or trivially deviating from normal radiographic anatomy need not be catalogued at all, deviating findings are described in standardised vocabulary, and the guideline draws one clear line through them — between findings demonstrably associated with a lameness risk, flagged as “risk” findings on the basis of the published literature, and findings whose future significance cannot reliably be assessed. The guideline states its own hierarchy explicitly: the careful clinical examination is the most important basis for assessing the horse, and the radiographic examination is a supplementary investigation covering a small part of the finding spectrum.

The professional reasoning behind the change is worth a buyer’s understanding, because it is a free education in how to read any report: the classes implied a precision the science does not support — the correlation between many radiographic findings and future clinical problems is weak and use-dependent, identical images can mean different risks for different careers, the school-grade system had shifted weight from the clinical examination to the images, and the imprecise class definitions had themselves generated litigation. The 2018 format answers each of those failures in turn.

The buyer’s bilingual rule. When a seller says “TÜV I–II”, translate it as a claim that the report described no significant findings — then ask for the report and images themselves, because the claim is a summary of a document you are entitled to read. When your own vet’s report arrives in descriptive form, resist asking “so what class is that?”; ask instead the question the modern format is designed to answer: what is the risk of this finding for this horse in the career I have described?

Practical rights and mechanics

Who owns the images. The party who commissioned and paid for them — your PPE set is yours; a seller’s existing set is theirs, shared by consent (and quality sellers share readily, since current images defend asking prices, as the price guide notes). Auction dossier images are provided to registered bidders under the auction’s conditions.

Second readings. Any set can — and for remote buyers, always should — be re-read by the buyer’s own veterinarian: interpretation genuinely varies between readers, and two readings convert one opinion into a range (buying from video makes this mandatory practice). Digital DICOM files transfer trivially; ask for them, not screenshots.

Validity windows. Radiographs are a snapshot, and the market convention treats a set as current for roughly six months — older sets are history, useful for comparison (“was this finding present two years ago?”) but not a substitute for current images on a horse being sold today. A seller offering only an old set for a current sale is making an economy the buyer should decline to share.

Sedation and logistics. Horses are lightly sedated for radiography as routine; the session takes an hour or two at a clinic, longer with portable equipment at a yard. Clinic sessions generally produce better images and easier storage/transfer — one reason the exam location question in the PPE guide leans toward clinics for full workups. One documentation detail from the German guideline shows the standard of care the buyer should expect: shoe removal on the forelimbs is recommended for the foot views, and if the shoes stay on at the commissioning party’s request, the report says so.

The stored-blood pairing. Radiography day is blood day: the stored sample drawn alongside the images covers the possibility that what moved soundly through the exam was pharmacologically assisted — the two protections are a set.

What x-rays cannot tell you

The caveat that governs everything above, in both directions:

Findings without problems. Large numbers of sound, performing horses carry radiographic findings that never trouble them — surveys of warmblood populations and the entire logic of the 2018 reform rest on this fact. An image is not a prognosis; a finding is a question for clinical correlation, use-assessment and, sometimes, a price conversation (common findings, negotiation).

Problems without findings. The inverse is equally true and less advertised: soft-tissue structures — the suspensory apparatus that dressage careers most often strain — barely register on radiographs, and pain has no pixel. “Clean x-rays” is a statement about bone architecture on a given day, not a warranty of soundness; the clinical examination, the flexions, the lunge on the hard circle and the horse’s verifiable history carry information no image contains.

Which returns to the section’s organising idea: the whole examination, images included, prices risk. It does not abolish it.

This page is general educational information, not veterinary advice: how a specific finding on a specific horse should be read is a question for the examining veterinarian, not a wiki.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

What x-ray class is acceptable when buying a horse? Under the historical German system, classes I–II were the market’s “clean” standard and III the negotiation zone — but the classes were officially retired in 2018 for descriptive, risk-based reporting, and the modern answer is use-dependent: the question is not the grade but each finding’s assessed risk for your intended career, discussed with the examining vet.

How long are purchase x-rays valid? By market convention, roughly six months — beyond that, a set documents history rather than the horse being sold today. Older sets retain comparison value (showing whether a current finding is old and stable or new), which is a reason to request them alongside, not instead of, current images.

How many x-rays are taken at a purchase exam? Sets run from around ten views (feet, front fetlocks, hocks) to twenty-four or more adding stifles, back and neck. The German guideline’s standard examination comprises eighteen views since the 2018 revision; the buyer chooses the set against price and ambition.

Do clean x-rays guarantee soundness? No. Radiographs show bone structure, not pain, and barely see the soft tissues where dressage careers most often strain. “Clean” images support the price and reduce specific risks; the clinical examination, the horse’s history and the stored blood sample cover what the images cannot.

Should I x-ray the back and neck? Increasingly common for dressage purchases at meaningful prices: spinous-process views address the kissing-spines question directly, and cervical views a region of growing veterinary attention. Two calibrations: radiographic back findings are frequent in symptom-free horses (clinical correlation decides), and the added views cost little once the session exists — the information-per-euro is favourable.