Nube’s Ulcers: What We Can’t Control and What We Can.

When Nube (nu-bay) was two and first diagnosed with ulcers, it felt rare, almost exotic. People were just learning about ulcers. Phantom thoughts worried us, but we didn’t know what we didn’t know. Ulcers were unknown in the general population, or so we thought. Maybe at the race track, but never our horses. So rare … Read more

Nube: Ulcer Nostalgia and What I Didn’t Know

I get nostalgic for the days when I didn’t know what I know now. I miss the bittersweet, marginally innocent time.  My sense of humor was better then, too. It was 2005 and not many of us knew. We surely do now. Nube (rhymes with eBay) was two years old. A tall Iberian Sporthorse gelding … Read more

Calming Signals and Living on the Ulcer Continuum

Forty years ago, we didn’t know about ulcers. Some horses acted crazy and we tried to train them out of it. Colic was the number one killer of horses. We didn’t know what we didn’t know. Then around thirty years ago, we began to recognize and study ulcers. Research papers came out, scopes were invented, … Read more

Equine Gastric Ulcers… and Sage.

I’ll call her Sage. Sage was a thoroughbred mare with classic elegance. A solid bay with a long neck and pointy withers. She was very feminine, not too tall, but she was proud. That’s who she was born to be -but what she looked like was very different. She was in a small stall the … Read more