Assess Your Horse’s Ulcer Risk Factors

Choose based on a typical week. Heavy work includes intense schooling, conditioning, competition prep, jumping, speed work, or exercise that causes sustained sweating or hard breathing. Do not count light turnout, hand walking, or easy hacking.

Count time outside the stall in a paddock, dry lot, pasture, or run. Do not count riding, hand walking, grooming, or time spent in the barn. Choose the answer that best reflects a typical day.

Include grain-based feeds, sweet feeds, senior feeds, performance feeds, mare & foal feeds, and ration balancers. Do not include forage or fiber-based feeds such as beet pulp, soybean hulls, hay pellets, or hay cubes.

Include hay, pasture, hay nets, slow feeders, or other forage sources. Choose the longest period your horse goes without forage in a typical 24-hour day. If your horse runs out of hay overnight, count the time from when hay typically runs out until forage is available again.