My ulcer prone mare astounded the vets by still having ulcers, albeit few and small after 2 months on gastroguard, so I have to be fairly aggressive in her ‘maintenance’ protocol.
Despite the fact that ranitidine is shown to be less effective when not dosed 3x a day, even a single daily dose of about 45 (75mg) pills does a great deal towards reducing any signs of ulcers in my mare. In the winter when she is fed twice a day, she gets ranitidine with each meal. In addition, I feed her brewer’s yeast for the probiotics, give her as much alfalfa as she will eat - not much, and dose her with ulcergard when ever we do anything stressful. She gets no sweet feed or electrolytes as there is evidence that the additional sugar can exacerbate ulcer problems. I was told to add corn oil to her diet, in her current barn that isn’t really an option, but she does get pelleted rice bran. When ever I drop a single component of this regime, particularly the ranitidine, she starts to lose weight and begin with her tell-tale signs of a bad belly.
If you want to try the ranitidine option, the cheapest route is, surprisingly, buying the OTC generic at Sam’s Club or Costco. I priced it out compared to a variety of online vet pharmacies and the Costco pricing won out. Sam’s is about $.10 cheaper per 270 pills than Costco, but I try to avoid shopping there as it is part of the Wal-Mart Regime.
Four ponies…not exactly earth-shattering, but it’s a step in the right direction! I will continue to balk at using the terms “studies have shown” and “it has been shown”, etc. with such a lightweight piece of work but as the authors stated, it is almost certainly harmless and cheap. 
