Tag Archive for: ulcers

Is there an effect of diet on glandular ulcers?

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Review of Effect of diet composition on glandular gastric disease in horses

My ears pricked when I received an email alert about a study that had just been published “Effect of diet composition on glandular gastric disease in horses”. That’s because up until recently, we’d thought that glandular disease risk factors were management and stress related, and diet didn’t really play a role. Of course, I needed to know more, with mounting evidence that diet may indeed play a role in glandular disease in some horses.

This particular study looked at the effect on glandular scores of substituting half of the grain concentrates in the diet with alfalfa pellets. Those which remained on the full rate of grain concentrate in their diets were called the Control group and those receiving half grain concentrate and half alfalfa were called the Alfalfa group. Trainers were instructed to feed their horses the same diet for 4 weeks prior to the study commencing (Day 0) – the before diet was the same as the Control diet.

Summary of findings were:

  • When comparing the Control and Alfalfa diet groups, no difference in the number of horses with glandular ulcers were found between the two groups.
  • Within the Control group, the number of horses with a glandular score ≥2 increased over the study period.
  • In the Control group, horses that had a glandular scores 2-4 at the beginning, did not show any improvement over the study period.
  • In the Alfalfa group, 5 out of 6 horses that had glandular scores 2-4 at the beginning of the study, showed improvement in their glandular scores (improved from ≥2 to 0-1).

This is where things took an unexpected and interesting turn. The researchers compared the non-ulcerated horse group (glandular scores 0-1) with ulcerated horse group (glandular scores ≥2) at Day 0. They found that simple sugar intake of the diet these horses were on before Day 0 was significantly different between these two groups. I know what you’re thinking…high sugars blah blah blah…but no! When comparing many variables including diet, the non-ulcerated group had a significantly higher daily intake of simple sugars in their before Day 0 diets, compared with the ulcerated group.

The researchers thought that higher daily intake of simple sugars which supports certain strains of Lactobacillus may have a protective effect in the stomach. Lactobacilli adhere to the gastric mucosa, forming biofilms and outcompeting pathogenic bacteria. This has been explored in rat models and supports the theory proposed by the authors.

Looking at the effect of substituting half the concentrate grain ration with alfalfa pellets, a positive effect was seen, with fewer horses with GGD at Day 42. The authors propose that this may be the results of a reduced amount of starch available to starch-utilising bacteria in the stomach. These starch-utilising bacteria produce fermentation products which change the pH of the stomach content, which cause other short chain fatty acids such as butyric acid to be more harmful, resulting in mucosal damage. The authors also add that alfalfa pellets offer a buffering effect within the stomach and can contribute to maintaining a higher pH despite acid secretions of strong fermentations associated with grain meals.

Key takeaways-

    1. Some Lactobacillus strains may have a protective effect in the stomach, reducing glandular disease and accelerating healing of existing glandular lesions.
    2. Reducing starch in diets is beneficial to reducing the fermentation products in the gastric contents, which otherwise when combined with very acidic environment cause damage to the glandular mucosa.
    3. Inclusion of alfalfa (lucerne) pellets with grain concentrate can provide a buffering effect within the stomach to maintain a higher pH, reducing harmful effects of short chain fatty acids on gastric mucosa.

Many interesting findings! If you’d like to know the nitty gritty details or read the full article, it is available open access at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jvim.16747

 

 

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Spotty’s Glandular Ulcers Have Healed!

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Back in May last year we scoped our new pony Spotty and found she had mild glandular ulcers. The only risk factor we could ‘see’ was the fact she had been a chronic ‘sweet itch’ pony for years. You can read the backstory here

Our dilemma at the time of scoping was she had already been with us for 2 months, on a balanced diet, including a gut supplement because I was suspicious of ulcers and with constant access to fibrous pasture.

So what we didn’t know was were these ‘mild’ ulcers healing and on their way out? OR were they persistent (like Galaxy’s) and will remain despite her new diet and the removal of her source of chromic stress (no midges at my place and therefore no itching).

At the time, in consultation with my vet, we chose to not medicate Spotty and rescope. Due to Covid lockdowns, the next rescope we could do was 6 months later… in late November 2021.

In the period between May and November her picky eating disappeared, she was happily eating salt and while her stubbornness didn’t disappear under saddle she certainly was content being ridden when she was doing something that didn’t involve repetition (hates being ridden in an arena!).

What the scope showed us

And I am RELIEVED to report that for Spotty, on re-scoping, her glandular ulcers had resolved!!  After the experience with Galaxy (who was scoped first on the same day) my heart was in my mouth when Spotty was being done, so I was beyond relieved to find her glandular stomach in excellent shape!

She did have some hyperkeratosis (Grade 1 squamous ulcers)… sigh. I expect this was due to her grazing being restricted via strip grazing in the 2 months prior to the scoping and the grazing she did have access to was very lush!

My suspicion is that with just lush, watery pasture in the mornings as I moved their strip grazing fence and lucerne/alfalfa hay once a day in the late afternoon there is long periods of time where there is unlikely to be protective fibre in the stomach.

AND they probably don’t produce much saliva when eating lush pasture. There is at least one study (Bell et al 2007) that shows in racehorses that time at pasture was not protective against ulcers.

Next steps…

My plan is to provide access to straw next spring to make sure they always have something fibrous to chew on without blowing their calorie budget!

Fast forward to now though (late summer), Spotty is now living on a giant track with her pasture buddies Poet and Popcorn. They have lots of low quality, fibrous pasture to munch on all day and they get new pasture in a strip graze paddock right at the end of their track each day. So fingers crossed her squamous region is doing better.

She certainly looks good on the outside, but as Galaxy has so beautifully shown us, this is NOT an indicator of internal stomach health!

 

 

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Meet Spotty: A Case Study in Ulcers

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Here is an interesting little case for you!

Meet Spotty… who isn’t spotty … her full name is Spotlight!

Spotty has just joined our little herd of equines and has fitted in beautifully with Popcorn and Poet.

I bought her from a friend who wanted to sell her as she was a chronic ‘QLD Itch’ (sweet itch) pony and my friend wanted her to go somewhere with no midges!

I was looking for a pony and she is just perfect for us. And we have no midges!

What is interesting about this you ask… nothing, yet!

BUT, the first few times I fed Spotty I noticed she was pretty finicky. For a pony she was also in excellent (not fat) condition, despite having had free access to pasture. AND if I added salt to her feed she wouldn’t eat it.

Plus she could be a little grouchy when getting saddled up and is a bit hesitant to go forward some days, (which yes, could be just her being a pony who knows she can beat her inexperienced rider, but for now I have given her the benefit of doubt).

My brain is putting all of this together… chronic underlying stress from being itchy (despite my friend doing an a-mazing job keeping her rugged and as protected as possible!), weird appetite for a pony and not fat despite lots of pasture, girthy and not happy in her work.

It was suggesting ulcers to me, and it was suggesting glandular ulcers (the ones down the bottom of the stomach), as I couldn’t see how there were any risk factors for the squamous ulcers up the top of the stomach.

So, into a scoping day we go, and look what we found, mild pyloric ulcers.




In a way it didn’t surprise me. BUT when we think about the typical risk factors for ulcers, this pony had none, aside from the fact she was itchy/stressed all the time!

The interesting dilemma for me is she has been with us for 2 months already. She has been (of course) on a well balanced diet since she arrived, gets a gut supplement (because I was suspicious of ulcers) and always gets lucerne before she is ridden (my daughter makes sure of this, I love seeing her get the lucerne as the first thing she does when saddling up!). The top (squamous) section of her stomach was pristine on scoping.

So what we don’t know is, are these ulcers healing and on their way out? Or are they persistent and will remain despite the non-itching and new diet.

I have chosen, in discussion with my vet not to treat these ulcers with any form of medication for now, keep up the diet and the supplement and rescope in 4 to 6 weeks and see what we can see!

I wanted to share though as it is such a good example of how (I suspect) stress can lead to ulceration as truly this pony had no other risk factors (aside from not being mineral supplemented on her pasture, which could lead to zinc deficiency and an inability to heal any lesions in the gut).

I hope you find this as fascinating as I did!

 

 

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Galaxy Still Has (BAD!) Ulcers

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Ohhh Galaxy… almost 6 months now on a balanced diet and near pristine environment for reducing the risk of ulcers and she STILL has SEVERE ulcers!

This little girl had been on 2 months of oral omeprazole treatment before she came to me. She was scoped at the one month mark and had severe squamous and glandular ulceration.

On arriving here I had intended to put her on injectable omeprazole but with COVID and the drug not arriving and her behaviour and appetite improving we made the call to wait to medicate further until we could look in her stomach again. With COVID lockdowns this took a lot longer than anticipated!

We finally scoped her again last Friday (literally drove through floods to get her there, after being delayed so many times there was no way I was missing this opportunity!)… was so hopeful she would be better… was so gutted (pardon the pun!) that her condition is still so bad!

BUT this again serves to teach us a lot! This little mare looks great, shiny, in excellent (too excellent) condition, she is eating well, grazing normally, behaves like a normal horse, is happy now to be brushed all over and SEEMS like there is nothing wrong.

The gastroscope though tells a very different story… showing us it really is impossible to know what is going on in that stomach when just looking from the outside!

And it also teaches us that in at least some cases, pristine nutrition and management are not enough to resolve ulcers that are already in existence!

 







Where to from here?!

Thankfully we haven’t (yet) thrown everything at her. The wonderful Dr Doug Eddlington and Dr Benjamin Sykes have put their heads together and have come up with a plan for injectable omeprazole (given she didn’t respond to two prior months of treatment with the oral version) plus sucralfate. We will scope after 4 weeks on this regime and reassess.

What worries me more is WHY does a horse with close to zero risks for ulcers in her life stay so badly ulcerated?!

And even if we do treat and resolve these ulcers, are they just going to come straight back?? I’m not even sure I want to know the answer to this question just yet!

I guess we will see!

She won’t start treatment until January as we can’t scope her until around early February. If we miss the 4 weeks on treatment mark and scope her again to find ulcers we won’t know if they resolved with treatment but then came back or if they didn’t resolve in the first place.

And for me, that is critical information.

In the meantime I am not going to change anything about her diet or lifestyle.

I was so hopeful that being in a super-relaxed environment and on a specially formulated and balanced diet would help her naturally resolve those ulcers (it has with Spotty, yay!)… but alas, we need to move on the plan B!

Watch this space, will update you when there is more of the Galaxy journey to share!!

 

 

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Galaxy Update – 17th August 2021

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With COVID locking down my entire state this month we are still without a follow up gastroscope so unfortunately I can’t give you a technical update on what is actually happening in Galaxy’s stomach.

What I can report on is her behaviour, which is probably the best indicator we have at the moment for what is happing inside.

I have been taking the opportunity just to spend little bits of time with Galaxy in the last week. I decided I would see how she reacted if I bought her out of her paddock to be brushed while haltered. I wasn’t going to push her and just brushed her neck and shoulders.

With lucerne hay to munch while I brushed she accepted the brush and I think even enjoyed it. No indication of her wanting to pin her ears back.

I also took her for a walk to find some tasty grass in our big pasture and while she grazed I brushed her all over, including her girth and belly. Again, no indication of wanting to pin her ears back (or kick) as she had grown accustomed to doing when she was badly ulcerated.

What the vet had to say…

I had Dr Doug, my vet out to check her stifle joints as she has odd movement in her back legs on occasion. Doug diagnosed her with ‘upward fixating patella’ and has suggested I use exercise to try and rectify this!

Doug and Stacey (our amazing vet nurse!) both commented on how much her behaviour had changed since she spent the night with them prior to her original scoping (back in May). And I have to say, she is turning into a pretty chilled out little girl. She no longer runs to the rails and whinnies when we take any of the other horses out of the paddock and she grazes a lot!

So outwardly she is doing well. Her coat still looks pretty foul but she should shed it soon and get her summer coat so will see how that looks before I worry too much about that.

Her diet remains almost the same. I have reduced her lucerne hay from 4 kg/day to 2 kg/day as she is in very good condition so I am having to balance calorie intake with managing ulcers!

I have also added a small amount (80 g/day) of copra meal and sugarbeet pulp to add a little more fibre variety to the diet. While her primary issue is in her stomach, I am also very conscious that the stomach is only one part of the entire digestive tract. I do think anything we can do to promote hindgut health will also support stomach health indirectly.

Moving forward

Next steps will be more groundwork with her and depending on how she accepts this we can move on to ridden work.

Stay tuned for our next update on Galaxy’s progress healing from gastric ulcers!

 

 

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Galaxy Update!

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I’d love to be able to give you a really detailed update on progress with Galaxy.

Unfortunately though, with the scoping that was planned last week now postponed until ‘sometime in the future’ due to COVID restrictions, I can only give you an update on what I can ‘see’ from the outside.

Galaxy in all seems to be doing well

She is eating like a normal horse now, head in her feed bin and contentedly finishes her feeds.

For a few weeks now I haven’t seen her walk away from the feed bin and come back once (where when she first arrived she would do this repeatedly and often not finish her feed for hours).

She has also integrated well into my little herd. She and Spotty were a bit at odds with one another but this seems to have settled and they are happy to graze alongside one another now.

Galaxy LOVES Poet and is often standing so close she is touching him… makes me wonder if this will be a part of her healing process, this close company of a small herd of horses.

She grazes well now too. When she first arrived she would often just stand and stare off into the distance. Now she grazes more often than my horses (which I have to say is quite the achievement!).

She is a quirky little thing. And she definitely has a more anxious temperament than the other 3.

If there is something slightly unusual happening she will be the one paying the most attention (this may be because she is still newish, time will tell). And when we take one or more of her mates out to be ridden she is at the fence calling for them.

This ‘anxiety’ for want of a better term possibly has something to do with her being prone to ulceration. Will be interesting to see if it settles more over time. For the most part though she is a happy pony, and you honestly wouldn’t know she has (or at least had) severe ulceration.

I did brush her for the first time last week!

She was eating her lucerne hay, relaxed, no halter (which Felicity Davies pointed out may have removed her usual triggers for a negative reaction to being brushed… i.e. that she wasn’t anxious about being girthed up and ridden). She accepted the brush quite happily all over her near/left side. This hopefully is a good sign!

Her same diet continues

Grain free balancer, buffering gut supplement with amino acid support, full fat soybean, vitamin C and lots of lucerne as well as free access to grazing (which currently is a mix of 90% dead old native grass and 10% lush green cool season grasses).

I have added 40 ml/day of sunflower oil and will build this up slowly over time. I wasn’t able to find corn oil, so I chose sunflower as it has an equally high omega 6 content… if that freaks anyone out and you are thinking wouldn’t you feed a less inflammatory oil high in omega 3, I agree it does sound and feel very counterintuitive to feed a high omega 6 oil. But it seems the omega 6 and the proinflammatory cytokines it gives rise to are important for the healing of ulcers… I plan to review the data around this in more detail as soon as I get the time!

Next moves…

My next move with her diet will be to incorporate very small amounts of additional fibres with copra meal and beet pulp going into her feed and Rhodes grass hay fed with lucerne hay in the afternoons. I want to support her hindgut microbiota as much as possible. We sometimes forget that the gastrointestinal tract is all joined together. So while her immediate issue is in the stomach, promoting the best possible hindgut health is also a priority.

So far I am happy with her outward progress, but I am dying to see what is actually in her stomach! This process is teaching me patience!!

Until next time, love from Galaxy!
Xx

 

 

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Why your horses won’t show you they are in pain: Lessons from Chewy and the chicken!

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Heads up! Your horses WILL NOT show you they are in pain until the pain is so bad they can no longer hide it!

Why? Because they are prey animals!

And if you’ve ever watched a David Attenborough documentary you will know that the old, sick or injured are the ones that get EATEN!

So if you are a prey animal and you are old, sick or injured, you hide it for as long as you can… so you don’t get eaten.

Why is there a photo of a dog and a chook you ask?

I know that might seem a bit random but it is because the dog (predator) was showing me EXACTLY why the prey (in this case the chicken) try not to show they are unwell.

My dog Chewy normally pays no attention to my chickens.

But for three days she stalked this chicken who was ancient by chicken standards, I suspect senile and on her way out. Chewy literally sat by the fence or stalked her as the chicken moved up and down the fence, just watching and waiting for her chance (which she never got, just so you know!).

It really struck me that the old, sick or injured animals really are targeted. Chewy could easily catch any of the chickens, but she never bothers to stalk them… but this one she did! She just instinctively knew she was an easy catch and was waiting for her chance.

Instinctively horses know this! They know if they show signs of weakness they put themselves at risk.

Why am I telling you this?

Well…so that you understand that just because your horses ‘seem ok’ doesn’t necessarily mean they are. And as owners and riders we need to be SUPER vigilant for any small indications our horses may give us that something isn’t right.

Gastric ulcers are a classic example… and we often come across horses with severe ulceration but no ‘symptoms’ as such save for some subtle changes in behaviour or appetite, or even just a swishing of the tail when being ridden.

The moral of the story? Be vigilant, FEED WELL (because nutrition is your best form of prevention of many diseases and conditions) and be on the lookout for really subtle indications that something isn’t right because it might be all your horse ever shows you for fear of being eaten!

 

 

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Galaxy’s ‘Backstory’ and the Story so Far

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If you missed her introduction, meet Galaxy! Galaxy is a 7-year-old arabian riding pony who has been given to me as she had such severe gastric ulceration and associated behavioural issues her previous owners felt she was unsafe and also not fit for sale. From what I’ve seen of her so far, I agree.

BUT, they also loved this little horse and wanted someone to try to heal her. I just happened to see her gastroscope and said she would make a great case study… so here she is! She is such a sweet girl, but with all her pain she just couldn’t hold her behaviour in.

My hope is that Galaxy’s story will help educate thousands of horse owners around gastric ulceration, and especially the behaviours horses will display to try and tell us, as their humans, that something is wrong! It’s not them being naughty, its them being in severe pain!

With that hope in mind, let’s get the story started!

Galaxy’s Backstory

I have very little backstory on her other than the home she came from was loving but inexperienced. The little bit I saw of her being handled there they were quite anxious with her. She was kept in a paddock, with another horse who was a seemingly very sweet thoroughbred. He was the dominant one though they apparently got along quite well. He would occasionally bite her over food.

There was a kelpie dog there, though she doesn’t seem too bothered by dogs here with me. She doesn’t like them, but she doesn’t seem scared of them either.

She had been with this family for around 6 months. During that time she ate only the native pasture available, which seemed plentiful but of poor quality. She was in good body condition.

Prior to this, I’ve very little background. Depending on how difficult she is to treat, I may go digging back further to find out more. Who knows how long this has been an issue for her. I believe she hadn’t been with the previous owner for long and she was sold for a relatively low price. Whether that suggests her behaviour (i.e. her ulcers) were an issue with this owner too I don’t know?

She is registered so I can see on her papers that she was bred by a stud but owned by someone else at the time of registration. So in her short life she has had quite a few homes, I am the 5th home that I know of so far! A lot for a 7-year-old.

Why Does She Have Ulcers?

The honest answer to this is I have no idea. Why does a pony who is not in work, not travelling, in a 24/7 paddock environment with a paddock buddy with constant access to forage have grade 4 squamous and glandular ulcers. Her stomach looked like it had been attacked with a carrot grater! (So bummed the recording didn’t work, so I can’t show you!).

But here are some possible contributors:

Stress – moving homes, potentially not always having paddock buddies or being handled by anxious handlers.

Chronic Pain – poor saddle fit or issues in her back, or hooves or mouth or ovaries or… And I do wonder if the glandular ulcers developed first which then predisposed her to the squamous ulcers by reducing feed intake and increasing the acidity and risk of acid splash in the stomach. Theory only but it is about the only one I can come up with to explain such severe squamous ulcers in a horse with constant access to forage and not in work.

I should note here she appears sound, and we have done her teeth and there were no major issues in her mouth, in fact not a single laceration that may have been causing pain. I had all my fingers crossed that we would find a mess in her mouth as it may have given us some explanation for her ulcers, but alas, (and also relief) she has a good little mouth!

I will keep looking for any possible contributors to chronic pain for her!

Drought – while the drought has been broken in our region for a while now who knows what her circumstances were during the recent prolonged drought. Is it possible she struggled for feed during the drought, developed ulcers then and hasn’t had the support to help heal them since?

Nutrition

This (maybe obviously) is the big one for me! Her diet I know was suboptimal and I am 99.9% sure it would have been deficient in multiple minerals, including zinc, some amino acids, vitamins and potentially also fatty acids. It’s a bit of a cocktail of deficiencies that would likely have predisposed her being less able to repair any damage that was occurring in her gut, leaving her susceptible to the severe ulceration present in her gut.

There are likely many more factors that may have contributed to her ulceration.  We will likely never know what caused her ulcers. Big question is can we fix them!!

Treatment So Far

When I first saw Galaxy being scoped she had been on oral omeprazole for a month. She still had grade 4 ulcers, top and bottom. She was only kept off pasture for an hour prior to the omeprazole being administered which could well have rendered it ineffective. Or she may be one of the small % of horses that oral omeprazole is seemingly ineffective for, regardless.

After that scoping she was continued on omeprazole, put onto a grain-free complete feed, and had a gut supplement added to her diet. This continued for another month with no improvement in her behaviour. But she hasn’t been scoped again so we don’t actually know what has happened in her stomach. Her next scope is in 2 days.

Since coming to me I have really just focussed on her diet. I have incorporated a lot of lucerne, taken her off the complete feed as she was quite fat and have switched to a grain-free balancer pellet, focussed on amino acids, using soybean and supplemental amino acids, added vitamin C (it’s a theory, will explain more later) and she gets a gut supplement twice a day to help with buffering her stomach and supporting her hindgut.

As we go through this story I will explain why I am using these ingredients. It is too much detail to add just now.

So far so good. When she first arrived her appetite wasn’t great. She picked at her lucerne hay and often left a lot of it uneaten. She picked at her feed and for a couple of days hardly ate anything. Which gave me a small taste of the frustrations of a horse with a poor appetite! And she was terrible at grazing, preferring to stare off into space than actually put her head down and eat.

But about a week and a half in and she is was eating like a proper horse, finishing her hay and spending longer amounts of time grazing.

Where To From Here

First things first, she gets scoped again in 2 days and then I will know what I am actually dealing with! Once we know, my vet and I will put together a plan for medication and ongoing nutrition.

I will also keep looking for any other stressors or pain that may be predisposing her to the ulceration we are seeing.

And I’m also really focussed on keeping her calm, integrating her into my herd so they can teach her to be a chilled out pony that loves to graze and eat normally, and on slowly slowly helping her to accept being scratched all over without pinning her ears back! I’m doing very little with her in terms of handling because I don’t think it is fair to expect her to be able to behave well when she is likely still in a lot of pain.

Watch this space! Will update you once this scope is done!

 

 

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Photo of Nerida standing with her horse at sunset

Be Part of the Change to Feeding Horses Better. Safer. Smarter. (The FeedXL Backstory)

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FeedXL officially started out almost 2 decades ago as CD-ROM based software. But truth is, FeedXL has been somewhere in the works since I was a kid, growing up on a cattle farm in rural NSW, Australia.

As a child, the only place I ever wanted to be was with my horses. I still remember heading off to Uni and being so sad I wouldn’t see my favourite mare for weeks on end!

BUT, at Uni I also had the amazing opportunity to take on a PhD in equine nutrition. Once finished, I started consulting to feed companies and very quickly realised this problem… that horse owners had no way of ACTUALLY knowing if what they were feeding their horse was meeting that horse’s requirements.
So we built one! And it has slowly morphed into what we know as FeedXL.

Today, FeedXL has helped more than 26,000 horse owners to feed Better. Safer. Smarter.

Here is FeedXL’s story, filmed (during the worst drought in history) with Poet, Popcorn, PomPom and Chewy the dog at FeedXL headquarters in Tamworth, Australia.




 

FeedXL is truly a labour of love for me. And I feel so much gratitude to you, and all of our members for being a part of the change that really is all about feeding horses in a way that makes life better for them!

Thanks for sharing the journey. I hope you enjoy seeing how it all started!

Xx
Nerida

 

 

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Nerida at horse show

Confessions of a Horse Nutritionist #2: I didn’t know ANY of this stuff before!

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It’s funny how when you do the same work for more than 2 decades you can sometimes forget how little you USED to know.

Growing up, I rode horses every day… often twice a day.

It was almost always my beautiful mare CoaCoa. She worked hard. And yet she was never fed properly… in hindsight I can see how many issues that actually caused!

Life on the farm for our horses was good in many ways. They had big paddocks with plenty of pasture. They were kept with friends and were treated kindly.

But there are so many things I would love to be able to go back and change!

There was no internet of course so information was not as readily at hand… but we were ignorant of so many things that would have made life for our horses better.

Access to salt, hay fed at intervals during their long days of work, hay fed before riding, supplementing with a proper balance of vitamins and minerals, regular dental care, and enough higher energy feed to enable them to cope with the long hours of regular work we asked of them are all things I would have done, had I known better!

And ulcers! I cringe now thinking of CoaCoa’s habit of pulling back her lips and chewing at the bit, of her weight loss when in work and her sometimes (sometimes often) anxious behaviour… it all screams ulcers to me now but back then I didn’t even know gastric ulcers for horses were a thing.

I guess now this is a lot of what drives me to do what I do.

To help other horse owners to know and therefore do better for their horses.

I can’t go back and change what I didn’t do for CoaCoa. But I can help other horse owners like you to learn about what is best for your horses so that history doesn’t have to keep repeating itself and more horses don’t live the way my CoaCoa did in her early years!

 

 

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