Understanding the anatomy of a horse is vital to promote its health and immune system. We’ve broken it down:

Mouth 

A good dental structure is the beginning of a good digestion. In the mouth, the food is made into smaller pieces and the saliva production is stimulated by chewing. 

Saliva ensures that the food easily slides through the esophagus and blends well with gastric juices. 

	Chewing time	Saliva formation
1 kg roughage	40 min	3,5 liter saliva
1 kg concentrate feed	10 min	1 liter saliva

Esophagus 

When the food is swallowed, it passes through the esophagus to the stomach. Normally, this goes smoothly, but in horses who eat very generously or inadequately chew, clogging can occur. Greasy eaters can be inhibited with the Hartog Feed Box XL and / or one of the Hartog roughage, such as Lucerne-mix or Gras-mix, by mixing the concentrate feed, which will allow better chewing on the feed.

Stomach  

The stomach of the horse is very small with a content of about 10-15 liters. A proper mix of the gastric juices improves the digestion in the small intestine. If the food is wet and thus contains more saliva, it mixes better and faster with the gastric juices. Besides the type of feed, of course, the amount is important for the degree of mixing with gastric juices as well. Therefore, do not give a mature horse more than 2 kg of concentrate per meal and make sure that at least 60% of the horse’s energy needs come out of the roughage which should be distributed as much as possible throughout the day. 

Small intestine 

The anatomy of a horse small intestine is about 20 meters long. The composition of the feed material determines where it is digested in the gastrointestinal tract. A horse’s digestion of, for example, concentrates, cereals and carrots occurs mainly in the small intestine. Through intestinal movements, the food mass mixes with bowel fluids. Fibers in the diet affect the degree of intestinal movements and therefore the digestion. 

Blind and small intestine 

The blind intestine of a horse is very large and fills the entire right side of the stomach anatomy. The small intestine is a bag-shaped organ where the food stays for some time, then flows to the large intestine, which is also significant in size. In the large intestine, horses can break down the food parts (fermentation) from hay and grass through millions of useful bacteria. Then the food flows to the rectum and disappears in the form of manure. In good digestion, the horse produces smooth mastballs without long residues of roughage.