Everything Horse magazine Magazine, October 2014 | Page 29

DIGESTION AND FEEDING SPECIAL WITH EQUIMINS

Image credit MichellePhotography UK

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particularly the case when horses
are stabled over winter. It takes
the average horse 8 hours to
eat 12kg of hay. They would
consume a 1.5 kg ration of hard
food in 15 minutes.
•

The stomach has two areas. The
ph of the frontal zone is kept
higher by the saliva, and allows
bacterial fermentation to begin.
They are mainly lacto bacteria
that breakdown any sugars or
starch in the feed. The horses
digestive system is not designed
to process cereals, they do not
deal well with starch, and it is
a real problem for them. The

greater the starch content of the
feed, the greater the problems.
The starch content of hay is 1-3%.
The starch content of bagged
feeds is typically 15-20% for
leisure mixes and up to 40% for
competition mixes. Check out
the bags in store for yourself, but
here’s an example. A well known
company recommend that an
average horse eats 3 kg of their
popular Cool Mix per day. That
equates to 600g a day of starch,
which = 18 kg of pure starch per
month. The starch is broken
down by the bacteria, producing
volatile fatty acids (VFA). The
VFA’s are absorbed by cells lining

October 2014 • Issue 13 • Everything Horse UK Magazine

the front part of the stomach,
which can then swell, die and
finally ulcerate. From the front
portion of the stomach, the food
moves to the rear area, which
is very acidic and it is further
broken down in preparation for
entering the small intestine.
•

The small intestine is where
digestion and absorption really
begins. To do so effectively, the
acidity of the food entering it
has to be neutralised to allow
the good bacteria to thrive.
Because a horse is adapted
to trickle feeding over many
hours, it has evolved without a

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