Equine ulcers affect the majority of performance horses and cause chronic pain. Understanding causes and prevention significantly improves welfare for horses in work.
Equine ulcers represent one of the most prevalent and systematically underdiagnosed sources of chronic pain in working horses. The high prevalence in performance horses — possibly affecting the majority — reflects the mismatch between natural equine feeding behaviour (continuous grazing) and management practices (stabled horses fed twice daily). A horse with gastric ulcers experiences burning discomfort every time stomach acid contacts the ulcerated mucosa — a sensation that occurs most acutely when the stomach is empty. The connection between ulcers and common performance and behavioural problems — cold-backed behaviour, reluctance to canter, girthing sensitivity — means that many horses are managed as training problems when the underlying issue is pain. Prevention through appropriate management is both more humane and more effective than repeated treatment cycles.