Avon Ridge Equine Veterinary Services

🌟 Less Than 25% of Gastroscopies This Year Have Required Ulcer Treatment

Despite still performing large numbers of gastroscopies, less than 25% of horses we have scoped in 2026 required treatment with ulcer meds - a significant improvement compared with previous years.

This is an incredibly encouraging shift and represents a dramatic improvement in the way our patients are being managed. It suggests that our clients - arguably some of the most educated, proactive and management-focused horse owners around, are taking on board the latest evidence-based advice and making meaningful long-term management changes that are improving the gastric health of their horses.

What makes this even more impressive is that many of these horses are in intensive work, travelling regularly and actively competing.

🪄 There’s no magic formula. It’s about giving our owners a customised management (and diet) plan to suit the horse’s workload while addressing their individual risk factors.

✅ Good gastric health is absolutely achievable in performance horses when tailored veterinary advice is given to owners and management is optimised.

Gone are the days of automatically reaching for long and likely unnecessary courses of ulcer meds. Our clients also recognise that treating “because it could be ulcers” is a flawed approach that often ends up costing more in the long run. Gastroscopy is the only way to know for certain.

With our mobile, at home gastroscopy service, the process is more convenient and arguably less stressful for the horse, while also allowing us the time to investigate the real underlying cause of clinical signs when ulcers are not identified.

🙌 Well done to our clients who are putting in the work behind the scenes. Your horses are benefiting from it.

🤓 As always, I’ll continue to share the latest research and recommendations with you on our exclusive client email portal.

🚙 Learn more about our mobile gastroscopy service: https://avonridgeequine.com.au/mobile-gastroscopy-service/

🩺 Contact us on 0427 072 095 or book an appointment online: https://avonridgeequine.com.au/book-an-appointment/

Draft horses are gentle giants, but when emergencies happen, they can present very differently to lighter horse breeds.

One of the biggest challenges with draft horses is colic. Research and clinical experience show that these horses may display surprisingly subtle signs, even with severe and potentially life-threatening intestinal disease. Instead of violent rolling or dramatic pain behaviours, some draft horses may simply appear quieter than normal, mildly uncomfortable, or “not quite right.”

Their large body size also creates unique risks. Draft breeds appear predisposed to certain gastrointestinal problems including large colon displacement and volvulus. Stallions may also be at increased risk of inguinal or scrotal hernias. Unfortunately, draft horses undergoing colic surgery tend to have higher complication rates and lower survival rates compared with lighter breeds.

Even routine examination can be more challenging. Re**al palpation may be difficult due to their size, and veterinarians often need to be particularly careful with medication dosing because draft horses can be more sensitive to sedatives and anaesthetic agents.

For draft horse owners, recognising subtle warning signs is incredibly important:
• reduced appetite
• standing quietly away from companions
• pawing or shifting weight
• mild flank watching
• reduced manure output
• increased heart or respiratory rate

The take-home message? Never underestimate mild signs in a draft horse. Their calm temperament can sometimes mask the severity of disease.

Early veterinary assessment can make a major difference to outcomes.

📞 If your horse is showing signs of colic, CALL 0427 072 095 immediately.

🥕 BREAKING: Horses Have Strong Opinions About Carrots 🐴

A little light reading compared to the usual research updates I post 🤓

Scientists offered horses a carrot tasting menu:

🔸raw
🔸grated
🔸boiled
🔸dried
🔸carrot juice

(Yes, somewhere a researcher boiled, grated and blended carrots for horses - all in the name of science!)

Here’s what they learned:

🥕 Raw carrots = rockstars. Instantly inhaled. Zero hesitation.

🥕 Grated carrots = acceptable. Like pre-chewed snacks for lazy chewers.

🥕 Dried carrots = meh, but ok …still carrots. Fine.

🥕 Boiled carrots = NO THANK YOU. The equine equivalent of soggy Weet-Bix. But seriously, are how many people out there boiling carrots for their horses?!

🥕 Carrot juice = confusion 🧐… then curiosity… then okay fine.

(Usual reminder: treats = treats, not dinner 😉)

🔸 And no, you’re not going to tip your EMS horse into a laminitic episode by feeding it a carrot occasionally. As someone far smarter than me said way back in the 16th century: “The dose makes the poison”

📚 Reference:
Preliminary assessment of leisure horses’ preferences for different forms of carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus). Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12691516/

Part 2: Vitamin E & The EMS Horse

If you have an EMS horse or pony, you are often doing exactly the right thing by restricting pasture access to reduce non-structural carbohydrate intake and minimise laminitis risk.

But there is an important consequence that is often overlooked.

Pasture restriction also removes the horse’s primary source of vitamin E.

This creates a very common scenario where horses are managed correctly for insulin dysregulation, but inadvertently become deficient in vitamin E.

Many of these horses are maintained on hay-based diets, sometimes with soaked hay, further reducing nutrient content. While this is appropriate for metabolic control, it significantly increases the risk of inadequate vitamin E intake.

In practice, I see this frequently in horses that are:

- On long-term pasture restriction
- Maintained on hay only diets
- Not receiving targeted vitamin supplementation
- Struggling to build or maintain topline

Vitamin E deficiency in these cases can contribute to muscle weakness, reduced performance, and difficulty developing or maintaining muscle mass, even when energy intake appears adequate.

It can also complicate the clinical picture in ridden horses. Horses may be assumed to have training or fitness issues, when in reality there is an underlying nutritional deficiency affecting muscle function.

The only reliable way to assess vitamin E status is through blood testing.

We can measure serum or plasma vitamin E concentrations. The sample must be handled and prepared carefully to obtain an accurate result as Vitamin E levels can be affected by several external factors. Interpretation should always be made in the context of the individual horse, their diet, and clinical signs.

👉 Get in touch with us using the booking link below if you’d like to get your horse’s Vitamin E levels checked.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post about supplementation - what works and what doesn’t.

🩺 Contact us on 0427 072 095 or book an appointment online:
https://avonridgeequine.com.au/book-an-appointment/

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