by Eleanor - April 17th, 2009.
Filed under: equine ulcers, general commentary.
Sage herself, grazing
Results of a new study published this month in
Veterinary Clinics of North America: Equine Practice show that horses
need to chew. Didn’t we already know that? At least with data coming out like this on a regular basis, perhaps eventually we will start to see a positive change in how horses are stabled, fed, and live their lives. Maybe we will start calling our behaviors of feeding twice a day and enclosing a 1200 pound animal in a stall as the real vices in a barn, not the cribbing and weaving behaviors of the horses.
On a related issue, I have recently updated the Equine Ulcer page with multiple new links to articles about stress, diet, and ulcers. I will continue to keep a vigilant eye out for these updates since it appears from all the evidence that painful, often debilitating ulcers are almost completely man-made and preventable.