Understanding Your Horses Digestion
Understanding your horses digestion and how they process their food will help you become a better caretaker of your four legged friends nutrition, overall health and performance. Horses are giant herbivores devouring large amounts of different grasses. While providing good grazing for horses is an important aspect in their diet, as they graze they ingest a fair amount of grit and dirt which overtime can greatly wear down a horses teeth creating sharp points which can effect their health (from a digestion aspect) and performance (responsiveness to the riders hands/having a hard mouth). An annual visit from a qualified equine dentist can keep your horses teeth healthy, aiding in better digestion of their food and overall health. Floating of your horse’s teeth should become a regular part of your horse’s annual health care plan.
The digestive tract of a horse is one that is actually quite touchy and has to be managed properly to avoid illness which in some cases can lead to fatality. Horses chew and hold their food at the back of their mouths, mixing the food with a fair amount of saliva. It is then pushed down their esophagus by strong muscular contractions. If the food isn’t chewed properly or you have a horse that is a greedy eater, or there teeth are not filed in such a way to chew food properly an obstruction and choking of their food can occur.
Horses have only one stomach while other grazing animals such as cattle have several. Horse’s stomachs are rather small for their size and usually function the best when not completely filled up. Horse like humans experience a full and uncomfortable feeling when they over eat. This can be dangerous and a sign of colic. Many people who have experienced colic with a horse are keyed to providing one or all of the aids that can be beneficial in helping to prevent this such as;providing more grasses and hay, and less starchy grains, making sure horse is on a regular de-worming program that will help eliminate parasite infestation, making sure horses has access to clean drinking water always, plenty of exercise and a microbial product that has live naturally occurring organisms that will help to facilitate better intestinal and digestive health.
Products such as the
Equine Direct Fed Microbials are one of those. This is a synergistic blend of Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus casei and Enterococcus faecium, blended on an inulin carrier,
Ultra FOS®.
This unique blend of
Microbials combined with
Inulin (fiber) provide a daily source of live, naturally occurring microorganisms.
Direct Fed Microbials are used to restore, stabilize and maintain the best level of optimum intestinal micro-flora of horses, aiding in better digestion and increased general health.
Understanding the ingredients and products that are featured in this article can better be explained in further detail in our “
Ingredients 101” section.
