Intro to horse nutritionA Phantom Rider’s 4-H guide to the basics of the equine digestive system & horse nutrition

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Parts of the Digestive System

The digestive system is made up from the parts of the body that work together to break down the food we eat into the nutrients that our body has to have to work.

The first part of the digestive system is the teeth. They break apart the food so that it can be swallowed and travel into the body. Food travels down the esophagus into the stomach. After some digestion, or break down, in the stomach, food moves to the small intestine. Water and other nutrients are absorbed from the small intestine. Food that hasn’t been absorbed here goes to the cecum. From the cecum it travels to the large colon then the small colon. These three parts make up the hind gut. The rectum is where the balls of matter that haven’t been digested are formed (horse apples) and the anus is where they leave the horse’s body.

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Types of horse feed

Horses are meant to graze so their bodies are built to run best from eating a lot of roughage. If they are working hard (exercising a lot) or are a hard-keeper we may need to give them concentrates to provide more energy. Sometimes they need additional supplements, as well.

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Body Condition ScoringBody condition scoring is a method we use to evaluate (look at and think about) if our horse is getting too much or not enough food to eat. It is scored from 1 to 9. A ‘1’ is a very thin horse and a ‘9’ is an extremely fat horse. We want to see our horses around a ‘5’.

Score 1 Score 5 Score 9

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Winter Care

Horses can’t get enough water from snow. They must have fresh water available to drink!

Check your tank heater every day to make sure it doesn’t shock your horse

Feeding hay makes your horse warmer (it puts off heat inside your horse as he digests it!)