I didn’t say they can’t be born with ulcers. I hadn’t heard it before, which means I just learned it. I learn multiple things a day from COTH, which is why I love it. What I meant was foals can ALSO get ulcers from being accidentally separated from Mum. I haven’t researched it but they did not day why the finals are born with ulcers. It would be interesting to see if that is different country to country or with different feeds for the mum, etc.
What you say is perfect management may be different to what I do. For a start we are not in a cold country so everything is different. I swear black and blue by my chiropractor and farrier. I won’t use anyone else. You don’t have access to them.
Each horse is managed for what they need. So each is managed differently. Sim with his mental problems, he was sacked by 2 good horsemen. He is the hardest horse I have ever retrained. He is not a pet which I keep telling my husband not to feed by hand.
He is a completely changed horse. But it didn’t happen overnight. He is not kept in a paddock but can visit anyone and loves looking over the foals next door. He came because he had bitten at the riding school, oropeza feeding tests by hand, kicked, Sim will treat you fairness. His fairness was very high when he came. He has relaxed this since. He used to leave his feed to attack if you went past him when eating. I nipped that in the bud.
Stars had ulcers and couldn’t put on weight. He is kept in a paddock as he was being mercilessly bullied as he is too meek.
Dodge was a school horse. When we went to get him he was so hyped on grain and kept separate that when the girl went to get him he reared and she only had a short lead rope. We let him out in a paddock and he cantered for 3 days. He was in a yard not ridden for months on grain and it turned him into a lunatic.
Off the grain he has never reared. He is put with Sim. He doesn’t canter every minute of the day and we recently had to lock him up in a stable for an injury.
I watched him leading him out of the stable the first day but no mellow old Dodge and he has turned into such a lovebug. I mean he always used to give hugs even when he was a school horse but this had ramped up since being in the stable. Which was the opposite to him being locked in a yard the time before not on our watch.
It could be that we ride differently, train differently, lunge differently, feed differently. I can’t tell you what the difference is but as I said Stars was owned by a vet nurse with free veterinary advice and with her Stars was soft, had ulcers and bucked 100% on the lunge. She sold him because she wanted a horse that she didn’t have to ride 3 times a week.
She was also having lessons with a great instructor and I had a lesson on him with her instructor and watched him ride him. She was so honest about every problem with him. He was in a paddock not a stable. So I am guessing you could say with her she was not clueless, and had perfect management. It is the horses that say if it is perfect management not the owners.
He is now an air fern, has never bucked on the lunge, is normal to groom and I don’t notice if I dont ride him for a week or 2 or 3.
So as I said I can’t tell you why your horse has ulcers that you can’t fix. I can’t tell you how to manage your horse as I have not met your horse and have no experience in your country.
You can not send him to me and I can not come to you because of the pandemic.
So you need to listen to your horse about what he needs, not what every other in the world needs. It may be different to the nearest horse.