Why Equine Nutrition Matters

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Welcome to an introduction to equine nutrition. It is important to be introduced to the modern aspects of equine nutrition as a part of your learning. You may be faced with questions from your clients about nutrition, you may feel the need to refer your client to a qualified equine nutritionist, or you may feel the need to study and qualify in equine nutrition and pasture management. To maintain a horse's health from the inside out, we need to be looking at the horse from the whole perspective. Food has an extremely important job in the body and mind of every horse. Horses are herbivores, that means they are plant eaters. Therefore, they gain all their nutrition requirements from plants only. This is quite different to an omnivore or a carnivore.

Ruminants Versus Hindgut Fermenters

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There are two kinds of domestic herbivores ruminants and non ruminants. The group called ruminants includes species such as cows, sheep and goats. The non ruminant group includes species such as rabbits, rhinoceros, guinea pigs, and all equine related species. Very important difference between the two groups is in the digestive system. Ruminants have a rumin, which is a large area before the stomach where they digest food. So another name for ruminants is four gut fermenters, because digestion is started before it reaches the gut or the stomach. Non ruminants are our horses, they do not have a rumen and digest their food after the stomach, hence the name hind gut fermenter. It is important that you can identify that there are differences between ruminants and non-ruminants because many people assume that they digest their food the same way. Fermentation is very important to all herbivores. Plant material is coated with cellulose and is impossible to digest via the method of just digestive juices breaking it down. Animals that eat plants have to host large numbers of bacteria that break cellulose down for them. Ruminants do this breakdown process in the foregut of the rumen, and our non-ruminants do this breakdown process in the hind gut. Horses have a very large cecum and long large intestine. This is where a great number of these bacteria-friendly bugs live. Taking care of the good bacteria within the horse's gut is therefore very important.

Grazing, Browsing, And Horse Anatomy

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Herbivores can also be divided into two more categories, and this is separate from a ruminant or a non-ruminant. So these are a grazer, which is like cows and sheep, and browsers, which are like giraffe, elephants, and various goat-related breeds, and that would be across the world. The horse is predominantly a selective grazer, but can browse as well, especially during hard times. A horse is able to browse because it has a prehensile top lip. It can strategically pick berries off a blackberry bush or leaves and bark off a tree. The horse, as a grazer, has front teeth that are able to clip and eat much closer to the ground than, say, a cow. So a cow actually wraps its tongue around the grass and then does a pulling and tearing action. So quite different to a horse. In hard times, such as drought or even really cold hard winters, a horse that can forage for food can speed up its digestive processes by eating more and passing it through quicker to get more out of the feed available, however poor the food substance may be. Their molar teeth have a very large flat surface area which chops and breaks food into smaller pieces. Mixing it with saliva that helps the digestive process. The muscles in a horse's jaw are extremely powerful and are designed for a horse to chew for up to twenty hours a day

Trickle Feeding, Movement, And Stress

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if required. The horse is a trickle feeder. Their digestive tract is designed to digest food in a slow, continuous, wave-like, pulsating action known as peristalysis. This is the one common factor among all the herbivores. They are designed to constantly forage for food, and we call this trickle feeding. The pulsating walls of the digestive tract come under the heading of smooth muscles, and like all muscles, they work best when the body's function of walking and foraging is being stimulated. When a horse has the choice to eat and move around grazing and browsing in its environment, it does so instinctively to aid in the natural digestive processes. When horses are spending many hours and days in a suppressing environment, this can be like a stable or a yard, some horses may perform repetitive, stereotypic behaviors described as purposeless actions. And this can be like the weaving, you know, they weed side to side and crib biting. This is strongly suggested to be associated with suppressing the horse's natural requirement to roam and forage enough natural carbohydrate fibre that would normally be slowly and continually digested over a 24-hour period. When this aspect of their existence is suppressed, digestive upsets can be presented in a variety of habits and mannerisms to try and mimic something of what their natural and normal bodily functions require. Every horse needs and deserves the right food to fuel their body to stay healthy and happy. Food provides the nutrients that enables a body to repair itself, grow new cells, and stay vital.

Processed Feeds, Vitamins, And Smarter Choices

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Modern day housing of horses, particularly in the outer urban areas of cities, has contributed to the explosive mass production of bagged horse feed varieties, where more and more byproducts of the agricultural industry end up in these glossy bags, supplying a huge profit margin for feed manufacturers. But not all products are created equal or offer enough nutritional value for an animal designed to survive and thrive grazing on grass. The lack of fresh and adequate ingredients in these products, but especially the vitamins, also causes deficiency and may lead to common diseases. Vitamins are needed for enzymes, which are protein catalysts of a specific biochemical reaction. Only small amounts of fresh vitamins are needed to maintain a healthy level in the equine body. Vitamins do not supply energy but help the body to process macronutrients, such as the proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that are found in living grasses. So, in summary, horse owners need to be referred to a qualified and preferably a biologically trained equine nutritionist to ensure they are feeding correctly and become well versed and also using sound rationale when reading ingredient lists of the products they are feeding their horses. But to understand also the ill effects, side effects of feeding processed type foods that are predominantly void of fresh, digestible nutrients that are specific to a horse's requirements.

Key Takeaways And Closing

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I do hope that this was helpful for you today, and I thank you very much for listening. Bye for now.