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Their effects can range from mild discomfort to serious intestinal impaction. Severe ulcers also can also result in bleeding and on rare occasions gastric perforations, as they can in humans.

Gastric ulcer symptoms can vary, says Slovis. Symptoms can include:

• Eating less aggressively than the horse has in the past
• Weight loss
• Chronic mild colic signs after eating, such as kicking at the belly 20-25 minutes after eating
• Behavioral changes, such as becoming unusually resistant to the aids or showing an uncharacteristic lack of impulsion during riding
• Aggression
• Frequently stretching out as if to urinate

A gastroscope can definitively diagnose gastric ulcers. While many owners who suspect their horses have gastric ulcers forego a gastroscope and simply treat the symptoms, Slovis notes that, if they’re wrong about the horse having ulcers, a stomach scope is cheaper than repeatedly dosing the horse with medicine that isn’t actually tackling the problem.

Needless to say, it’s best to do what you can to avoid the problem of ulcers in the first place. Regular turnout on grass can help, but busy competition horses might not have the luxury of regular pasture access. There are still steps you can take to help prevent ulcers, says Slovis.

1.  Avoid twice-a-day bulk feeding.

“It’s a common thing: you give them grain and hay in the morning and more grain and hay at night,” Slovis said. “Instead, try to give small amounts of food more often. If you have a sport horse who spends a lot of time in his stall at a show, maybe feed him a little in the morning, a little at lunchtime, a little in the early afternoon, and again in the evening. Spread out the concentrates; don’t just give one or two feedings. And do the same thing with hay; they can nibble that 24 hours a day. If your horse is a pig and eats all his hay at once, you can buy a special hay net with smaller holes.” The idea, Slovis says, is to spread out your horse’s food intake to make it as natural as possible.

2.  Be careful about your grains.

Giving your horse excessive amounts of cereal grains in one feeding, instead of spreading them out in small quantities, can be harsh on a horse’s stomach, Slovis cautions.

3.  Feed some alfalfa.

“Alfalfa helps with saliva secretion, and it also has calcium,” explained Slovis. “The calcium and saliva act as a buffer against some of the acid in the stomach. You don’t need to feed a ton of it. Just a half a flake or a pound or two after a grain diet can make a difference. The amount really depends on your horse. If your horse has metabolic problems, you don’t want to give too much, because you don’t want him to get the sugars and starches in there. But a pound or two twice a day can help get the saliva going and get some calcium in there.”

4. Go for a walk.

Hand-walking or hand-grazing can help a horse relax, especially if he is spending more time than usual in his stall while at a show. Another trick to keep a horse relaxed and happy in his stall: get him a toy. Relaxation and stress-reduction are important, because anxiety can contribute to gastric ulcers in horses, just as they do in humans.

Younger horses can be somewhat more susceptible to developing ulcers, especially during the breaking and training period, Slovis says. But older horses—particularly ones that travel a lot, are confined for longer periods, or whose diets are more inconsistent—can also be at increased risk for gastric ulcers, as can horses undergoing treatment with non-steroidal anti-inflammatories like bute and banamine. Empty stomachs also can cause problems: if a horse has to fast or is ill and doesn’t want to eat, he can develop ulcers in the stomach after 24 to 48 hours without eating.

“Any kind of situation that can involve stress, like trailering or stabling away from home, can contribute to them,” explained Slovis, who has a strong interest in gastrointestinal disorders in the horse and is currently doing research on alternative natural therapies to aid in the healing of equine gastric ulcers.

Dosing with an omeprazole product like GastroGard® before shipping long distances can help, Slovis said. Omeprazole also is the standard treatment for ulcers. If you’re treating a horse with GastroGard, Slovis recommends giving it to the horse on an empty stomach.

“Research has shown in animals that if you give GastroGard on a full stomach, you might not get the increase in pH that you want because the stomach doesn’t absorb it as well on a full stomach,” he said.

When considering treatments it’s always important to consult your veterinarian, who also might recommend and prescribe alternatives or combinations of treatments.

If your horse has ulcers, look for improvement after a week of daily treatment, Slovis advises. “At least a small improvement should occur within a week,” he said.

And remember: horses who have had ulcers once can be predisposed to getting them again—so always keep a close eye on your horse for signs of behavioral or eating changes that might signal their return.

Not all ulcers heal on a standard treatment, Slovis notes. “Be patient,” he said. “A lot of horses respond favorably to omeprazole (the FDA-approved formulation, not the compounded versions), but some won’t, and then you and your veterinarian might want to think about some alternative therapies or less conventional treatments.”

Time off and pasture turnout also can help, Slovis said. “Anxiety can be a big factor in this, and sometimes just giving the horse time off can help them get straightened out,” he said.

As always, seek your veterinarian’s advice if you suspect your horse might have ulcers or if you're looking for strategies to help your horse avoid them.

While we’re planning our summer trips it’s also important to consider a few of the potential problems of hot weather riding.  Heat exhaustion, and heat stroke, along with their complications can be debilitating and even life threatening for you and your horse if not recognized and treated properly.

The terms “Heat Exhaustion” and “Heat Stroke” refer to the conditions that summer’s heat makes worse, and especially so if we’re working beyond our fitness level. Heat exhaustion is a situation where the horse is dehydrated and exhausted from overheating. A horse suffering from Heat Exhaustion is very tired and very hot, but with treatment should recover without incident. A far more serious condition is Heat Stroke which is a total collapse, and far more life threatening. A horse in heat stroke is in imminent danger of dying.

One of the main ways that a horse cools himself is by sweating and using evaporation to get rid of body heat. If the horse runs out of fluid due to excessive sweating, dehydration has occurred and a dehydrated horse is at higher risk of heat stroke because he can no longer cool himself by sweating.  Learning to identify the signs of dehydration will help you to keep the situation in hand.

Now let’s look at our horse to learn a few of the symptoms of dehydration. Your veterinarian wants to teach you more. Ask him or her.

• A horse’s gums should be a healthy pink color. If the mouth and gums are dry, brick red or very pale he is showing the signs of dehydration.
• While you’re looking at his gums you can also check the capillary refill time by pressing your finger on the gums. If the spot doesn’t return to the original color within a second or two he may be dehydrated.
• Another symptom is a loss of skin elasticity. If you pinch the skin on the neck between your fingers and release, the tent of skin should snap back into place. If it takes more than 2-3 seconds to return the horse is dehydrated. The longer it takes the worse the condition is.
• A dehydrated horse’s heart rate will also increase as his body attempts to push more blood to the surface for cooling, but has less fluid to work with.
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What we can do if the worst happens and our mounts do overheat?

Rest, Water, and Relief are the biggest things that we can do to help our mounts and they’re the same things that we’d do for ourselves. These solutions can include:

• Rest him in the shade to minimize any additional heat gain from the sun and to help maximize heat loss from cool breezes.
• Douse him with cool water. The water will absorb the excess body heat and can be scraped off with a sweat scraper to remove the heat.
• Let the horse voluntarily drink 2 to 3 gallons of water at a time separated by 10- to 15-minute intervals until the horse is no longer thirsty.
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If rest, water, and cooling strategies don’t relieve the horse’s stress it’s time to call your veterinarian.

NOTE: It’s not just our horses. Heat exhaustion affects humans as well as equines. Our symptoms include feeling lightheaded, nausea, and a rapid heartbeat. If a rider is experiencing these symptoms, get them out of the sun. Loosen their clothing and have them drink water. Don’t let them “ride it out.” Heat exhaustion is easily remedied, but if left untreated, it can advance to life-threatening heat stroke.

Prevention

Mr. Ben Franklin said it very well when he uttered the famous line “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Heat stress prevention is largely a matter of conditioning. Keeping your horse in shape through the off season will help him adjust more easily to summer’s temperatures and increased physical demands. Keep that in mind next winter.

Heat and humidity are the hallmarks of summer. But what is too hot to ride?  A quick tool to help you determine when conditions may be likely to result in a heat related illness is the Heat Stress Index test. This test is simply the sum of the temperature and the relative humidity. If that number exceeds 150, riders should exercise caution and consider postponing activities involving long or intense exercise when the sum nears 180.

Summer’s temperatures present special problems for equines and not only when they are working. Horses traveling in enclosed trailers are also subject to excessive heat. Anything that inhibits a horse’s ability to cool itself can lead to problems.

Old Wives’ Tales

While we’re on the topic of treating heat stress let’s dispel some common misconceptions with studies conducted during the 1996 Olympics where it was both very hot and very humid.

“Never let a hot horse drink more than one or two swallows of water at a time.” – Although allowing a hot horse to consume unrestricted amounts of water may lead to problems such as colic due to hyper-distension of the stomach, it should be remembered that a typical horse’s stomach can hold between 2 and 4 gallons of fluid without being distended. One or two sips of water at a time is overly restrictive for a hot horse.

“Never give cold water to a hot horse – either inside or out.” – To help a heat-stressed horse’s core body temperature cool down, you can speed the evaporative process by moving him to a shaded area and dousing his entire body with cold water. You can draw a lot of heat out of horse with cold water applied in large volumes all over the exercising muscles of the horse, and horse will not tie up afterwards.