Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome (EGUS) affects 60-90% of performance horses and causes significant chronic pain. Evidence-based prevention strategies reduce both incidence and severity without compromising athletic development.
EGUS is simultaneously one of the most prevalent and most preventable welfare conditions in sport horses. The management practices that drive EGUS — intermittent feeding, high-concentrate diets, prolonged stabling, and intense exercise on empty stomachs — are common in conventional horse management and directly create the conditions for ulcer development. Horses evolved to trickle-feed, not to have intermittent large meals. Restoring feeding practices closer to this natural pattern — ad-lib forage, pre-exercise hay, reduced concentrate proportions — prevents most EGUS without pharmacological intervention. Treatment without management change reliably results in relapse.