05/27/2026
Posting for educational purposes.
Today I thank my clients that allowed me to take time off to bring my horse captain in for a vet visit in Hortonville at Great Lakes equine. 
Early this morning I loaded up and headed down to get my horse checked over as last May he had began having a bucking problem when being saddled.
Now, anyone that knows Captain knows this horse is made of not just beauty, but brains!
He wants to please, he wants to work. I just knew something was off. He was not doing bucking to be mean.. you could just tell he was in pain.
We started with a lameness exam and everything came back pretty much good, he was a little sore/stiff in the back end, and it was the right side which he likes to favor. He also flinched down when pushing on his back. However, the vets there did not find this to be too big of a concern because he technically was not fully failing the exams.
We then moved onto scoping him for ulcers.
They sedated him, and put the scope down his nose into his belly.

They had been doing this for quite some time and were not finding anything until they dug a little bit deeper. Now a horse has two separate walls in the stomach, they don’t actually have two stomachs but the way they explained it was there’s two separate areas that they needed to check.
The first one had a bunch of ulcers in it. Some still “active”. After they seen this, they checked the second area that they were concerned about and they did discover that he had BLEEDING ulcers. 
She also explained that the stomach acid can move around, and if it comes up, it can tend to hit the ulcers and feel like a severe burning sensation !! 😵💫🫣
Now, When I say this part my voice tends to tremble, because WOW, this Dr. looked me dead in the face and said
“This horse is just out to please you. He bucks with a saddle to state that he’s in pain, but he will not buck you off because he respects you.”
This horse has been out to please me since day one!
Even through the struggling times he still does!!!
My heart actually breaks for this little buckskin of mine!
Moving forward We decided that x-rays we are going to hold off on unless the future says we need to do further examination with x-rays on the back/hind end.
In 30 days, captain will be going back in to get re-scoped and we only hope and pray that with diet change, meds, and the time off he needs, he will be completely cleared to go back to riding/training and this never comes back because can you imagine!?! This poor horse!  
I did not get my own images, so I decided to share a few of what I found online. Captains ulcers actually looked a lot more irritated and inflamed, along with bleeding to them. The other diagram shows where the stomach acid sits, and where the ulcers tend to lay.
Listen to your horse! Listen to your gut feeling when you think something much more is happening and don’t wait like I did because boy, this horse has been through the ringer and we are set far back on our training due to some very painful sores !! 

Time to get him Tucked away at home, meds in his belly and some good alfalfa, now Let’s pray we can get this under control! Thanks for all the prayers, messages and again to my wonderful clients for allowing me to have this day off and figure out what is going on with one of my heart horses ❣️ 
