There is a lot of information kicking around the internet at the moment relating to stomach ulcers in horses.  It is not a matter of if a horse has ulcers - it is more likely that sometime in your horses life they will suffer from them.

A horse cannot get rid of ulcers on their own especially in the conditions that we keep them in. They do not have the luxury of roaming large distances and choosing which type of food they eat.  We keep them in controlled environments.  If they are on pasture it consists of only a small range of grasses and sometimes no access to trees or roots or even quality soil to chomp on when they feel something lacking in their diet.  These are the behaviors of wild horses that know what to eat for medicine or de-worming etc.  If they are hard fed it will usually consist of some hay - and regardless of the type of hay you feed, the nutrients that can be found in this ...continue reading →

Many horse owner's include lucerne either in the form of hay or chaff in their horse's everyday diets.   The reason they feed it is usually because the horse likes it and it is what they have been taught is a good feedstuff for horses.  It provides good roughage and bulk for their horse's and also smells nice and sweet.  That is because it is sweet!  It is loaded with sugars and great to help provide your horse with extra warmth and energy.  Lucerne is also high in protein and calcium.  It is useful to feed it at a competition where your horse is using a lot of energy and needs the extra usable fuel.  Examples of this would be at endurance rides, polocrosse or any other high energy burning horse sport.  It is also useful to help growing youngsters that need to put extra fuel into correct growth.  Does this make lucerne a suitable every day feed? ...continue reading →