Preventing ulcers in the horse trailer is a top priority for me. I’ve moved horses on multi-day cross-country moves four times now, and I’ve learned a lot about keeping horse guts happy on the road. Listed below are my five tips for how to prevent ulcers in the horse trailer.
Ulcer Prevention in The Horse Trailer
- Hay bags
- Alfalfa
- Pre-load with Pro CMC and Brewers Yeast
- UlcerGard- as needed
- Consider trailer comfort
Hang Hay Bags to Prevent Ulcers in The Trailer
Hay bags have gotten a bad rap in the past, but they’re a great way to help prevent ulcers in the trailer. As a safety precaution for those with shod horses, make sure you hang your hay bags high enough that your horse couldn’t get a hoof caught in it. Small hole hay nets with barefoot horses aren’t as much of a concern, but always hang bags at a safe height anyway. Small hole hay nets are the best, because they can slow your horse’s eating down. They can really stretch a flake or two into a couple of hours worth of food, entertainment and enrichment in the horse trailer.
Hay bags help to prevent ulcers by keeping your horses’s belly full and also by helping your horse to relax. A horse that is chewing and eating is a horse that is relaxing its jaw. This action will help to keep your horse calmer and more relaxed in the trailer, and subsequently, less likely to develop an ulcer.
Another way that hay nets help to prevent ulcers in the trailer is by keeping forage in the gut. This way, your horse’s acidic gut will have something to digest and work on, rather than eating holes in the stomach lining. Hay bags are a win win for ulcer prevention in the trailer.
Alfalfa for Ulcer Prevention When Trailering Horses
Feeding alfalfa is one of my go-to ulcer prevention strategies when trailering horses. Alfalfa is high in calcium and can be a good buffer for stomach acid. Additionally, it’s very palatable. Most horses love alfalfa. If you horse isn’t used to alfalfa, only give them a handful or so. It’s rich and it can cause loose stools in horses that aren’t used to having it in their diet.
I usually stuff a handful or two into their hay bags. I also like to give them soaked alfalfa pellets or cubes prior to travel. This helps in two ways. First, it gets alfalfa as forage into their tummies. Second, it also helps to keep them hydrated. Both are very important for gut health in the trailer and preventing ulcers.
Pre-Load with Pro-CMC and Brewers Yeast
Pro-CMC and Brewers Yeast are two of my favorite gut health supplements. I like to give brewers yeast on a regular basis. Whether you’re feeding it daily or a couple times a week in a soaked mash, it can really help to improve your horse’s gut health environment. Brewers yeast is one of the main ingredients in many expensive equine gut supplements and is one of the few equine supplement ingredients with legitimate peer-reviewed research behind it.
Pro-CMC is great for short-term gut protection. This is a great product to give a horse right before you load them on the trailer. It will help to coat the stomach and keep them comfortable. You can either put it in a tube and squirt it in their mouth, or you can just top dress it on your horse’s soaked alfalfa pellets. To see my full review of Pro-CMC, click here!
UlcerGard When Needed
UlcerGard is SUPER expensive, but it’s a great product when you need it. I don’t think every horse needs UlcerGard to travel, but it’s a good idea for a horse that’s new to long distance traveling. If you’re going to use UlcerGard, make sure to start at least a few days or a week before the trip. Continue giving it during the trip, and even for a few days after.
When I had to move two horses from Florida to North Carolina a few years back, I gave them both UlcerGard. For one of the horses, it was her very FIRST trailer ride ever (outside of practice loading in the yard). For the other horse, it was his first trailer ride in about 15 years or so. Now that they’re more seasoned in horse trailers and on trips, I don’t think they really need UlcerGard anymore. This is an expensive method, so only use as needed.
Is Your Trailer Comfortable For Horses?
Finally, a very overlooked issue that can contribute to equine ulcers in the trailer is trailer comfort. Is your trailer comfortable for long distance? Is it big enough for the horse? Are there a lot of noises or metal parts clanking during the ride? Is there enough ventilation? You need to evaluate your trailer to determine if your horse is even going to be comfortable back there.
Take a close look at your trailer, and maybe ride back there on a quiet street to see how it feels for the horse. Trailer comfort is also associated with your driving habits, so remember to take turns slowly and don’t slam on the brakes if you can help it.
In Conclusion, the five ways to prevent ulcers in the horse trailer are using hay bags, feeding alfalfa, preloading with Pro-CMC and brewers yeast, using UlcerGard as needed and paying attention to trailer comfort for your horse. It is possible to move horses cross-country and on long trips safely. Gut health shouldn’t be neglected. The last thing you need is a skinny miserable ulcery horse on the other end of the trip.
Preventing ulcers in the horse trailer needs to be on every equestrian’s list of priorities, whether you’re heading to a show across town or moving your horse across the country. While many of these tips are to be utilized by the person hauling the horse, it’s also possible to do this stuff for horses shipped by commercial companies too. Don’t let preventable ulcers sideline your horse during show or trail season. Ulcers are painful and preventable.
Until next time,
Happy Trails
Great video and blog, Ginny! You provide so much useful information and first hand knowledge. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! So glad it was helpful, and thank you for the comment!