{"id":32516,"date":"2026-08-14T15:30:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T13:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hartog.eu\/?post_type=articles&p=32516"},"modified":"2026-08-20T09:22:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T07:22:33","slug":"what-is-fibre-horse-digestion","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/hartog.eu\/en\/articles\/what-is-fibre-horse-digestion\/","title":{"rendered":"What is fibre? How a horse digests structural carbohydrates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fibre is routinely underestimated. That is a shame, because it forms the basis of every healthy equine ration. In this episode Maartje explains what fibre is and what happens to it in the digestive tract.<\/p>\n

Short answer<\/h2>\n

Fibre consists of structural carbohydrates that a horse cannot break down with its own enzymes. Bacteria in the caecum and large intestine ferment them into volatile fatty acids, a source of slow-release energy. Sugar and starch are the other category: the horse digests those itself, using enzymes in the small intestine, which gives fast-release energy.<\/p>\n

Which types of carbohydrate does a horse deal with?<\/h2>\n

Look at the equine digestive system and carbohydrates fall into two categories.<\/p>\n

Category 1 – carbohydrates the horse digests itself.<\/strong> This covers sugar and starch. The horse breaks them down with enzymes in the small intestine and absorbs the building blocks there. The result is quickly available energy.<\/p>\n

Category 2 – structural carbohydrates.<\/strong> This is fibre. The horse has no enzymes capable of breaking it down, so it passes through to the caecum and large intestine largely unchanged.<\/p>\n

What happens to fibre in the hindgut?<\/h2>\n

The caecum and large intestine hold a large bacterial population. Those bacteria break fibre down by fermentation, and the end products of that process are something the horse can absorb: volatile fatty acids.<\/p>\n

Those volatile fatty acids are the reason fibre counts as a source of slow-release energy<\/strong>. The energy is released gradually rather than in a spike. For a horse that needs to perform consistently – or that should not become sharper – this is exactly what you want.<\/p>\n

Why does this distinction matter in practice?<\/h2>\n

Because it determines how your horse responds to its feed.<\/p>\n