A few months later ... I now have a certification in Equine Nutrition and can't wait to learn more! This is a fascinating subject and there is so much to learn and share. So I am going to start a series of post related to Equine Nutrition with this first one about the Gastro Intestinal Tract.
This is very basic information as my goal is not to reproduce my training or a book.
Equine Nutrition #1: The Equine Gastro Intestinal Tract (GIT)
The GIT begins at lips and ends at anus. It consists of three functional regions: stomach, small intestine and large intestine.
Mouth: the digestion begins in the mouth with the mastication of the food and production of the saliva.
Stomach: the stomach is small and inelastic (reason we feed little and often). Only little food digestion happens there.
Small Intestine: the small intestine has three parts: Duodenum, Jejenum, Ileum. This is where we find the digestion of starches, sugars, fat and proteins but also minerals. It uses an enzymatic digestion method.
*note: any constituents not digested in Small Intestine will pass to Large Intestine
Large intestine or hindgut: The large intestine has three parts: the Caecum, the large colon and the small colon. This is where the degradation of fibers takes place. This is where the horse gets its energy. There is no digestive enzymes. The method of digestion is microbial fermentation (bacteria, fungi, protozoa). The health of the large intestine is very important and it is designed to process fibers! Problems occur when low fibers diets are fed. Also any sudden change in the diet will affect the microbial population and can lead to health issues.
Important facts:
- Good teeth are major in the digestive process as they reduce the food into particles sizes. This reduction will allow the enzymes to access the constituents of the food.
- The horse's stomach produces acid continuously regardless of whether it contains food or not! Saliva has a balancing role on the gastric environment BUT saliva is only produced in response to mastication. This is one of the reason why chewing is essential for horses.
- The intestinal system is designed to process high level of low nutritional quality forage on almost continual basis. Therefor the principle diet for a horse should be forage and this around the clock. If concentrates has to be given, it should be given in small amounts and throughout the day.
