I've had a really crappy couple of weeks with Tristan. He has an incredibly low pain tolerance, and when he doesn't feel 110%, he's an absolutely miserable ride. Unfortunately, his pain tolerance is so low, that he is often acting like a jerk when there is no way to tell what his problem is. I baby that horse like...well, like a baby. Chiropractic treatments, joint supplements, joint injections, bar shoes, special high fat/low starch diet...whatever it takes to keep him happy.
But this last bit of icky-ness brought on one of my bigger fears - ulcers. If I had unlimited money, he'd have already been scoped and would be on a full course of Gastro-Gard. Unfortunately, I just spent almost 2K fixing the truck. So I tweaked his diet, keeping the high fat, but trying to up the fiber. I added a couple of supplements that are supposed to help ulcers (papaya extract and Aloe Vera juice), and switched his oil from Canola to corn (linoleic acid has been proven to improve the stomach lining).
And tonight, thankfully, Tristan was back. As soon as we walked away from the mounting block and I picked up the reins, he was there. Happy, forward, comfortable. No teeth griding, no kicking out when I used my leg. I must have dropped the reins on his neck to pat him a dozen times just during our walk warmup.
Don't worry, if his tummy starts acting up again, I will go with the expensive but proven treatments; hopefully our "holistic" approach will at least keep him happy until the tax refund comes back. Of course, even better would be to have this just solve the problem
. This horse is darn lucky he's so cute!
But this last bit of icky-ness brought on one of my bigger fears - ulcers. If I had unlimited money, he'd have already been scoped and would be on a full course of Gastro-Gard. Unfortunately, I just spent almost 2K fixing the truck. So I tweaked his diet, keeping the high fat, but trying to up the fiber. I added a couple of supplements that are supposed to help ulcers (papaya extract and Aloe Vera juice), and switched his oil from Canola to corn (linoleic acid has been proven to improve the stomach lining).
And tonight, thankfully, Tristan was back. As soon as we walked away from the mounting block and I picked up the reins, he was there. Happy, forward, comfortable. No teeth griding, no kicking out when I used my leg. I must have dropped the reins on his neck to pat him a dozen times just during our walk warmup.
Don't worry, if his tummy starts acting up again, I will go with the expensive but proven treatments; hopefully our "holistic" approach will at least keep him happy until the tax refund comes back. Of course, even better would be to have this just solve the problem
. This horse is darn lucky he's so cute!