Ridecamp: RE: [RC] Ulcer Research/USA Druggies?

The current research is showing that most (90%) performance horses have
ulcers and there's a good chance that your barrel horse had one.  The
problem is, in horses, the symptoms can be very subtle or even invisible, so
it would be inappropriate to assume your old horse didn't have one.

Endurance can make the ulcer more visible due to the stress of competition,
but not always - again, the symptoms often mimic other issues, and some
horses are just plain stoic.  Like I mentioned, there are a number of
environmental factors that can cause the initial ulcer: an extended Bute
treatment, stall confinement, inadequate turnout, inadequate forage in the
diet, among others.  With a nervous horse, just trailering to an event might
be enough to cause an ulcer, although I'd bet that the other environmental
factors had already set up the horse to be susceptible to the problem.

Mike Sofen


-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Roby, Diane
Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2002 7:06 AM
To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [RC] Ulcer Research/USA Druggies?


I'm new to this group and to endurance/distance riding also so I don't
understand the statement "we're riding horses with ulcers already"  Is this
common to competition horses as a group or just endurance?  Is this because
the sport is so stressful to the horse?  Are the ulcers like ones people get
when they worry too much or eat or drink the wrong things or take medicines
that are too strong?

I ran barrels and poles with my horse as a kid and he never had any of these
kinds of problems. Maybe cause I didn't put too much stress on him or maybe
he just enjoyed it too much.  I have a horse now after 20 years of not being
able to have one and want to do LD to start and then 50's but not at the
expense of my horse's health.  I'll just to trail rides if it comes to that.


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