You're cranky. That burning pain is rolling up through your gut and seems to awaken every nerve in your body, and not in a good way. No position is comfortable, and nothing makes it go away. You eat and it seems to ease the pain, but only a little and only for a while. You drink, but the fire won't be put out. You can't concentrate, and no one better bother you while your're trying to cope with the pain. Maybe this is anthromorphizing a bit, but if horses feel the way we do with acid reflux and/or ulcers, it's no wonder those problems keep them off their feed, out of the ribbons and money, and grumpy with the world.

Nexium ("the little purple pill") for humans is an esomeprazole magnesium. GastroGard for horses–the only FDA-approved medication for prevention and treatment of equine gastric ulcers–is omeprazole. Those drugs are cousins. The amazing part of the problem for our horses is that while stress is a known cause for ulcers, it can take only a matter of days for ulcers to start. And besides GastroGard, the only approved treatment is to take horses out of training and put them out to pasture. So, it looks like gastric ulcer syndrome in horses is often a man-made disease, and we should be aware of it and help our horses.

Equine ulcers are usually a secondary problem following stress or over-use of/sensitivity to non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. Research has shown more than 90% of racehorses and up to 80% of competition horses have ulcers.

This is not to say every grumpy horse has ulcers, or every high-level competition horse is afflicted. But it also is possible that horses we would consider living with low-level stress without any classic signs have the ulcer syndrome