Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

 There was an artical about ulcers in performace horses in "The
Horse", and a thread in Rc shortly tehreafter awhile ago.  The
thought was that during strenouous excersize over a period of
time,t he stomache empties and gastric acids get into the
upstream parts of the stomache, cuasing ulcers.  Seems to me the
answer is simply to graze/feed as often as possible during the
ride.  Susan G. recommends long-stem forage - see below (from
the archives):

From: suendavid@xxxxxxx [mailto:suendavid@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2003 2:35 PM
To: Michelle Fink
Cc: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [RC] interesting ulcer article


> They did a novel study using exercising horses and found that
when the horse moves faster than a walk, the gastric wall is
contracted and stomach acids get pushed higher up in the
stomach, into more sensitive tissues which can induce
ulceration.
> Any thoughts about it?
All the more reason to keep plenty of forage in the stomach to
buffer acids.

The upper non-glandular region is more sensitive, but is
effectively protected by saliva *if* there's forage, forage and
more forage being chewed to initiate saliva production (another
reason why I prefer long-stem hay over pellets or 
cubes).

Susan G



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They're athletes! This is a partnership between horse and rider - we don't
have any jockeys out there, just pals and partners. We'd allow a rider with
a broken foot, a sore back and a nasty cold to compete - but we would never
let a horse in a similiar condition hit the trail.
~ Dr. Barney Flemming DVM

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