A horse’s digestive system is unique. Unlike humans, horses have a small, simple, single-chambered stomach that only makes up about 8.5% of their entire digestive system. Because of this, horses need to graze and eat small amounts of food consistently throughout the day, as their stomachs are designed for continuous digestion rather than large, infrequent meals.
How Does a Horse’s Stomach Digest Food?
The equine digestive process relies on a long intestinal tract and a large cecum and colon. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown:
- Ingestion: The horse takes in food through its mouth, where it’s initially broken down by chewing.
- Esophagus: The food then travels down the esophagus to the stomach.
- Stomach: In the stomach, digestion of carbohydrates and proteins begins, and the meal is converted into chyme.
- Small Intestine: The chyme then moves into the small intestine, where the majority of nutrient absorption occurs.
- Large Intestine (Cecum and Colon): The remaining undigested material enters the large intestine, specifically the cecum and colon. Here, the fibrous portions of the food are macerated, fermented, and dissolved with the help of microbes.
- Waste Elimination: Finally, the indigestible waste is eliminated from the body.
Why is the Horse’s Digestive System So Different?
Horses are non-ruminant herbivores, meaning they only have one stomach, unlike ruminants like cows, which have four-chambered stomachs. This single-chambered stomach necessitates a different approach to digestion, relying more on the fermentation processes in the hindgut (cecum and colon) to extract nutrients from plant-based food.
What are the Key Differences Between a Horse and Human Stomach?
| Feature | Horse