What food is made from horses?

What are carbohydrates in horses made of?

Carbohydrates are complex compounds made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Cellulose (carbohydrates found in hay and grass) is one of the more complex carbohydrates. Horses can digest cellulose (grass and hay) because they have small microbes in their large intestine (cecum) that can break it down.

What is fat in a horse’s diet?

Fat is an energy powerhouse that is a horse’s most abundant energy source. Fat is an energy powerhouse in the equine diet that packs twice the caloric punch of carbohydrates or protein and is the body’s most abundant energy source. Horses can consume and use fat from the diet, or they can store fat in their bodies for later use. What is fat?

What are carbohydrates for horses?

Especially since Carbohydrates pretty much make up your horse’s entire diet including forages, grains, and by-products of forage and grain. I want to keep it simple so you finish with a good understanding of what all the fuss is about regarding Carbohydrates.

What are carbohydrates made of?

As a group, these carbohydrates are called plant fiber, and they consist primarily of cellulose and hemicellulose. Carbohydrates got their name from the fact that they contain carbon combined with hydrogen and oxygen, usually in the same ratio as in water.

What are the different types of fats in horses?

Dietary fats are usually triglycerides, meaning they contain three long-chain fatty acids and one glycerol group. Volatile fatty acids are short-chain fatty acids derived from triglycerides that the horse’s body can use for energy.

How much fat to feed a horse?

Fat is dense in calories and provides a good source of energy for the horse. Combinations of common feedstuffs in a horse’s ration likely contain 3 to 5 percent fat. Horse’s can easily use up to 20 percent fat in their diet. You can replace some of your horse’s grain with fat or add extra energy to their diet with fat.

What are non-structural carbohydrates for horses?

Non-Structural Carbohydrates (NSC) – This includes the sugars and starches, and is a very important group of nutrients for horses because these are the carbohydrates that can be broken down by enzymes and absorbed from the small intestine into the blood stream as glucose and stored as glycogen in the muscles and in the liver.

What is the most common carbohydrate in a horse diet?

Present in forage, cellulose is the most common carbohydrate in horse diets. Microbes in the horse’s hindgut break down cellulose into individual sugars. As a byproduct, they produce volatile fatty acids. Horses use these acids as their main energy source.

What is digestible fiber in horses?

Some types of fiber analysis, such as the Total Digestible Fiber (TDF) measurement used in human nutrition, will include the structural carbohydrates plus pectins, gums, beta glucans and some polysaccharides. These are the carbohydrates that are not broken down by enzymes and need to be fermented in the hind gut of the horse.

How do horses get energy from carbohydrates?

After a horse consumes the carbohydrates found in forages and grains, the actions of enzymes found primarily in the small intestine break disaccharides and starch into monosaccharides that are then absorbed into the bloodstream, where they are converted for energy or energy storage (more on this in a moment).

What are carbohydrates made up of?

Another type of carbohydrate is a disaccharide (two sugars bonded together), which includes lactose (found commonly in milk, made from a unit of glucose and galactose) and sucrose (table sugar, made from glucose and fructose).

Can horses eat carbohydrates?

Just as you and I wouldn’t eat raw potatoes or pasta because they wouldn’t be very digestible, cereals fed to the horse can be cooked to improve their digestibility and reduce the risk of digestive upsets. The final group of carbohydrates is fibre, which can also be referred to as structural carbohydrates.

What are structural carbohydrates for horses?

Structural Carbohydrates are the major souce of energy to your horse when they are fermented they turn into Volatile Fatty Acids (VFAs) and gasses. The VFAs are used as energy for the horse, in fact VFAs provide as much as 30% of your horse’s total maintenance energy needs.

What are volatile fatty acids in horses?

Volatile fatty acids are short-chain fatty acids derived from triglycerides that the horse’s body can use for energy. They’re either liberated from dietary fat or are a byproduct of microbial fermentation in the hindgut.

How much grain should I Feed my horse?

It is recommended that horses not be fed more than 1 percent of body weight from a grain source. In addition, horses should have constant access to plenty of fresh, clean water for the gut to function normally. The horse’s GI tract is a delicate system.

How much fat is in a horse’s diet?

The typical horse diet consisting of pasture, hay only or hay plus concentrate has low amounts of fat (2-4%). The fat content in the diet can be increased by selecting feedstuffs in the concentrate part of the diet with a high fat content or by adding fats or oils.

Is your horse’s diet digestible?

In several studies researchers have found drastic differences in the digestibility of various fat sources in the horse’s diet. Fats from forages appear to be 55% digestible, whereas fats from oil are 100% digestible.

What percentage of a horse’s diet is carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates in Equine Nutrition. About 75% of all plant matter is comprised of carbohydrates. This fact means that carbohydrates are an extremely important part of a horse’s diet.

What are the sources of structural and non-structural carbohydrates?

Sources of good Structural Carbohydrates (fiber) are pasture grass, quality hay, and beet pulp. When we move to the inside of the plant cell, or the non-structural part, we find the Non-Structural Carbohydrates (NSC) stored for energy.

What are nonstructural carbohydrates in horse feed?

Nonstructural carbohydrates are those that either occur as simple sugars in the horse’s feed, or can be broken down by enzymes produced by the horse. Included in this category are glucose, fructose, lactose, sucrose, and starch.

Do horses need fiber in their diet?

No matter the breed or intended use, all horses require fiber in their diets. According to the National Research Council’s Nutrient Requirements of Horses (2007, 6th Edition), a large body of evidence suggests that insufficient dietary fiber can lead to several digestive issues (such as colic) and behavioral vices (such as cribbing) in horses.

Do horses need glucose during exercise?

However, it is also true that the horse is very much dependent on glucose, the body’s store of carbohydrate, for energy during exercise. For horses undertaking prolonged or high-speed exercise, a critically low supply of glucose will impair performance.