Horse Nutrition

It's Going Down in The Hindgut!

Equids (that's horses and horse-like animals such as donkeys, mules, zebras, etc.) are hindgut fermenters. Horses have a single chamber stomach (just like us!) that begins to break down food with gastric juices, food then passes to the small intestine where a lot of nutrient absorption occurs. After the small intestine food passes to a specialized structure we don't see in a lot of animals: the cecum. The cecum is a large vat, similar to the 'rumen' of a cow where bacteria live and break down the cellulose (the tough parts of plants!). The cecum is where the fermentation occurs in horses, ie. the hindgut! Food then passes through the large colon and then the small colon, these structures are important for reabsorbing water into the horses body so they can continue digesting food!

The Cecum is Key!

Believe it or not, humans have a cecum too. However, we call it an appendix! Your appendix is about the size of your pinky, we don't use it very much for digestion anymore since we eat a lot of meat, grains, vegetables, and fruits versus plant material (cellulose). Having a cecum is important for horses because this allows them to eat grass and get all of the nutrients they need! Because it's so important and food moves really slowly here, the cecum in a horse is huge. It can hold about 9 gallons of fluid and food!

Energy

Energy is a nutrient that can be found in many feed stuffs for horses. We can get the most 'energy' from carbohydrates. Carbs can be found in forages (grasses & legumes) or supplemental feedstuffs like grains (corn, oats, etc.). We can determine how much 'energy' a food has in a lab, this is often called digestible energy (DE) or total digestible nutrients (TDN).

Protein

Protein is a critical nutrient for horses and is responsible for many bodily functions, including muscle growth. Plants like alfalfa are very high in protein and horses love it!

Vitamins

Horses need six vitmains: A, B, C, D, E, & K. Horses can synthesize (make) almost all of the vitamins they need right inside their own body! We often don't need to supplement horses with vitamins unless they are on a limited diet.

Minerals

Macro & micro minerals are important for horses and maintain a lot of bodily functions. Different 'classes' of horses will need different amounts of minerals, a horse that sits in the pasture will need less than a horse that is worked hard every day. Supplemental minerals, if necessary, should be fed using a loose mineral or ration balancer feed, not a mineral block because horses are inefficient lickers.

Horses are thirsty!

Horses can drink from 5 to 10 gallons of water a day! Water is really important for horses since they need so much to keep their digestive system full of fluid. In states like Florida where horses sweat even when not working horses will need to drink more water to stay hydrated.