Feeding management is central to equine gastric ulcer prevention and management. Understanding the principles enables practical, evidence-based feeding strategies.
Feeding management for EGUS prevention is an area where practical, inexpensive interventions have strong evidence behind them. The horse that has continuous forage access, receives alfalfa before exercise, and is not subjected to prolonged fasting has fundamentally lower gastric acid exposure than one managed conventionally. These interventions prevent suffering in horses that would otherwise develop ulcers. Applied at population scale across working horse populations, feeding management improvements reduce an enormous amount of preventable gastric pain.