IS IT ULCERS?

Probably not, says Brian Nielsen, PhD, Dipl. ACAN, of Michigan State University. People tend to assume that these painful lesions that can form in the wall of a horse’s stomach may cause him to not want to eat, he says; however, research in Denmark showed that the only behavioral difference between horses who had ulcers and those that didn’t is that the horses with ulcers tended to eat faster.

“We did some work that also showed no differences in outward physical appearance or performance between horses with or without ulcers,” Nielsen says. “As for eating faster, it may be because the stomach feels better with feed in it.”