The Horse Digestive System Really IS Understandable!

The horse digestive system is one of the best places to start understanding horse nutrition. After all, if you don't know what goes on in there, the rest will all be Greek to you!

First things first -- horses are herbivores. They are designed to eat plants, which should make up the horse’s entire diet in one form or another.

They are also non-ruminants, and have what is referred to as a “simple stomach” -- one compartment that functions a lot like your stomach.

The anatomy of the horse's digestive system is fairly simple and straightforward, as it is much like yours with only a few minor differences. Starting from the top, the digestive system is composed of:

• the mouth and teeth
• esophogus
• stomach
• small intestine
• cecum
• large colon
• small colon
• rectum
• anus

The major difference between the horse and you is the importance of the cecum to the horse.

Digestion of diet components take place in specific areas of the tract. If something happens where it shouldn’t, problems and digestive upset can easily occur.

Don't let your horse fool you -- no matter how "big and bad" he likes to think he is, his digestive system is still delicate. Some days I wonder why I couldn't love something with a more sturdy digestive system, like a cow...

Anyways, back to the delicate digestive system. Colic (digestive upset) is a serious concern to most horse owners since it takes so little to throw the horse digestive system off. Something as simple as missing a few meals can cause colic.

This disease is complicated by the fact that horses are unable to vomit (thanks to extra strong muscles surrounding the opening between the esophogus and stomach). The best way to prevent colic is to understand how the digestive system of your horse works!

Almost all digestion takes place primarily in the small intestine. Carbohydrate digestion starts in the mouth and ideally finishes in the small intestine. Protein digestion and fat digestion both take place primarily in the small intestine too. However, there is some protein digestion in the large intestine.

For a closer look at these individual nutrients, check out their pages:

Carbohydrates
Lipids (Fats)

Now that we've looked at the horse digestive system, let's move on to some other areas of horse nutrition.

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