Evidence-based strategies for preventing equine gastric ulcer syndrome through management and diet.
Gastric ulcer prevention in horses is principally a management challenge, not a medical one. The conditions that cause ulcers — long periods without forage, exercise on an empty stomach, large concentrated meals — are entirely preventable with appropriate management. The widespread prevalence of equine gastric ulcers reflects how far modern horse management has deviated from the near-continuous grazing that equine digestive physiology evolved for. Welfare-conscious horse management prioritizes access to forage above almost all other considerations, understanding that a horse with an empty stomach is a horse in physiological distress.