We all know how important fibre is in the equine diet, but have you given much thought to the forms in which you feed it? Let’s see how they stack up

Photos: Jon Stroud. With thanks to Dengie Horse Feeds for their help with this feature, dengie.com

Our expert

Katie Williams MSc (Dist) RNutr is Technical Manager for Dengie Horse Feeds

Fibre, fibre, fibre – we often hear about the importance of it for our horses but probably don’t get as far as thinking about the reason for this. For horses, fibre performs the very important function of promoting the movement of food through the digestive system thereby keeping everything functioning as it should. However, its benefits beyond this shouldn’t be underestimated. Did you know that fibre can also provide a horse with a huge proportion of his energy and nutrient requirements? Let’s look at some of the facts.

Digestive benefits

Fibre in the diet has benefits for all parts of the digestive system...

Mouth: Eating forage requires the horse to engage his cheek muscles more strongly than when consuming cereals. The more intense action increases saliva production, which then regulates acidity levels in the stomach.

Stomach: Feeding too little fibre has been shown to result in an increase in acidity levels in the horse’s stomach, which can then predispose him to gastric ulcers. Feeding cereals further increases acidity in the stomach, which only exacerbates the problem.

Small intestine: The gut tissue is naturally permeable to nutrients and impermeable to anything harmful. Stress, disruption of bloodflow to the gut (for example, during exercise) and increased acidity can all break down the gut’s defences, making it more permeable, or ‘leakier’, meaning the horse becomes more vulnerable to infections and digestive upsets.