diff --git a/clients/stellarcore/client.go b/clients/stellarcore/client.go
index fafc3f4f21..ca3d098521 100644
--- a/clients/stellarcore/client.go
+++ b/clients/stellarcore/client.go
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 package stellarcore
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
 	"context"
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
-	"io/ioutil"
 	"net/http"
 	"net/url"
 	"path"
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ import (
 // Client represents a client that is capable of communicating with a
 // stellar-core server using HTTP
 type Client struct {
-	// HTTP is the client to use when communicating with stellar-core.  If nil,
+	// HTTP is the client to use when communicating with stellar-core. If nil,
 	// http.DefaultClient will be used.
 	HTTP HTTP
 
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ type Client struct {
 // in case an error was encountered during either the draining or closing of the
 // stream, that error would be returned.
 func drainReponse(hresp *http.Response, close bool, err *error) (outerror error) {
-	_, err2 := io.Copy(ioutil.Discard, hresp.Body)
+	_, err2 := io.Copy(io.Discard, hresp.Body)
 	if err2 != nil {
 		if err != nil && *err == nil {
 			*err = errors.Wrap(err2, "unable to read excess data from response")
@@ -152,9 +152,9 @@ func (c *Client) SetCursor(ctx context.Context, id string, cursor int32) (err er
 	return nil
 }
 
-func (c *Client) GetLedgerEntries(ctx context.Context, ledgerSeq uint32, keys ...xdr.LedgerKey) (*proto.GetLedgerEntriesResponse, error) {
-	var resp *proto.GetLedgerEntriesResponse
-	return resp, c.makeLedgerKeyRequest(ctx, resp, "getledgerentries", ledgerSeq, keys...)
+func (c *Client) GetLedgerEntries(ctx context.Context, ledgerSeq uint32, keys ...xdr.LedgerKey) (proto.GetLedgerEntriesResponse, error) {
+	var resp proto.GetLedgerEntriesResponse
+	return resp, c.makeLedgerKeyRequest(ctx, &resp, "getledgerentry", ledgerSeq, keys...)
 }
 
 //lint:ignore U1000 Ignore unused function until it's supported in Core
@@ -270,19 +270,33 @@ func (c *Client) simpleGet(
 	newPath string,
 	query url.Values,
 ) (*http.Request, error) {
-	q := ""
+	u, err := url.Parse(c.URL)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "unparseable url")
+	}
+
+	u.Path = path.Join(u.Path, newPath)
 	if query != nil {
-		q = query.Encode()
+		u.RawQuery = query.Encode()
 	}
-	return c.rawGet(ctx, newPath, q)
+	newURL := u.String()
+
+	var req *http.Request
+	req, err = http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, http.MethodGet, newURL, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "failed to create request")
+	}
+
+	return req, nil
 }
 
-// rawGet returns a new GET request to the connected stellar-core using the
-// provided path and a raw query string to construct the result.
-func (c *Client) rawGet(
+// rawPost returns a new POST request to the connected stellar-core using the
+// provided path and the params values encoded as the request body to construct
+// the result.
+func (c *Client) rawPost(
 	ctx context.Context,
 	newPath string,
-	query string,
+	params string,
 ) (*http.Request, error) {
 	u, err := url.Parse(c.URL)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -290,11 +304,14 @@ func (c *Client) rawGet(
 	}
 
 	u.Path = path.Join(u.Path, newPath)
-	u.RawQuery = query
 	newURL := u.String()
 
 	var req *http.Request
-	req, err = http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, http.MethodGet, newURL, nil)
+	req, err = http.NewRequestWithContext(
+		ctx,
+		http.MethodPost,
+		newURL,
+		bytes.NewBuffer([]byte(params)))
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "failed to create request")
 	}
@@ -304,7 +321,7 @@ func (c *Client) rawGet(
 
 // makeLedgerKeyRequest is a generic method to perform a request in the form
 // `key=...&key=...&ledgerSeq=...` which is useful because three Stellar Core
-// endpoints all use this request format.
+// endpoints all use this request format. Be sure to pass `target` by reference.
 func (c *Client) makeLedgerKeyRequest(
 	ctx context.Context,
 	target interface{},
@@ -319,7 +336,7 @@ func (c *Client) makeLedgerKeyRequest(
 	}
 
 	var req *http.Request
-	req, err = c.rawGet(ctx, endpoint, q)
+	req, err = c.rawPost(ctx, endpoint, q)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
@@ -329,7 +346,7 @@ func (c *Client) makeLedgerKeyRequest(
 		return err
 	}
 
-	// returns nil if the error is nil
+	// wrap returns nil if the inner error is nil
 	return errors.Wrap(json.NewDecoder(hresp.Body).Decode(&target), "json decode failed")
 }
 
@@ -356,10 +373,15 @@ func (c *Client) getResponse(req *http.Request) (*http.Response, error) {
 func buildMultiKeyRequest(keys ...xdr.LedgerKey) (string, error) {
 	// The average ledger key length, according to a simple
 	//
-	// SELECT AVG(LENGTH(HEX(key))) / 2 FROM ledger_entries;
+	//     SELECT AVG(LENGTH(HEX(key))) / 2 FROM ledger_entries;
 	//
 	// on a pubnet RPC instance is ~57.6. We can use this to preallocate a
 	// string buffer for performance.
+	//
+	// We know that these endpoints will almost exclusively be used for
+	// ContractData and the like, so we could optimize the buffer further for
+	// that, but that data is harder to query since it'd involve parsing the XDR
+	// from the DB to check the key type.
 	q := strings.Builder{}
 	q.Grow(50 * len(keys))
 
diff --git a/clients/stellarcore/client_test.go b/clients/stellarcore/client_test.go
index 6cfd01b210..aa068610b1 100644
--- a/clients/stellarcore/client_test.go
+++ b/clients/stellarcore/client_test.go
@@ -6,9 +6,12 @@ import (
 	"testing"
 
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
 
+	"github.com/stellar/go/keypair"
 	proto "github.com/stellar/go/protocols/stellarcore"
 	"github.com/stellar/go/support/http/httptest"
+	"github.com/stellar/go/xdr"
 )
 
 func TestSubmitTransaction(t *testing.T) {
@@ -75,3 +78,41 @@ func TestManualClose_NotAvailable(t *testing.T) {
 
 	assert.EqualError(t, err, "exception in response: Set MANUAL_CLOSE=true")
 }
+
+func TestGetLedgerEntries(t *testing.T) {
+	hmock := httptest.NewClient()
+	c := &Client{HTTP: hmock, URL: "http://localhost:11626"}
+
+	// build a fake response body
+	mockResp := proto.GetLedgerEntriesResponse{
+		Ledger: 1215, // checkpoint align on expected request
+		Entries: []proto.LedgerEntryResponse{
+			{
+				Entry: "pretend this is XDR lol",
+				State: proto.DeadState,
+			},
+			{
+				Entry: "pretend this is another XDR lol",
+				State: proto.ArchivedStateNoProof,
+			},
+		},
+	}
+
+	// happy path - fetch an entry
+	hmock.On("POST", "http://localhost:11626/getledgerentry").
+		ReturnJSON(http.StatusOK, &mockResp)
+
+	var key xdr.LedgerKey
+	acc, err := xdr.AddressToAccountId(keypair.MustRandom().Address())
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	key.SetAccount(acc)
+
+	resp, err := c.GetLedgerEntries(context.Background(), 1234, key)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	require.NotNil(t, resp)
+
+	require.EqualValues(t, 1215, resp.Ledger)
+	require.Len(t, resp.Entries, 2)
+	require.Equal(t, resp.Entries[0].State, proto.DeadState)
+	require.Equal(t, resp.Entries[1].State, proto.ArchivedStateNoProof)
+}
diff --git a/services/horizon/internal/ingest/fsm.go b/services/horizon/internal/ingest/fsm.go
index 8220942e73..c165faf371 100644
--- a/services/horizon/internal/ingest/fsm.go
+++ b/services/horizon/internal/ingest/fsm.go
@@ -765,11 +765,6 @@ func (v verifyRangeState) run(s *system) (transition, error) {
 			"ledger":   true,
 			"commit":   true,
 		}).Info("Processing ledger")
-
-		if sequence == 52885867 || sequence == 52885868 {
-			log.Error("We are in the problem zone.")
-		}
-
 		startTime := time.Now()
 
 		if err = s.historyQ.Begin(s.ctx); err != nil {