The Horse’s Digestive Tract

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The digestive system of the horse is a long and complex system that ensures that a horse gets enough nutrients to different parts of his body. It is also a very delicate system because of its size and complex nature. With all the different twists and turns that are involved in the process of digestion it is easy for this process to go wrong, which could cause a horse to experience extreme discomfort or even the loss of its life.

The process of digestion begins with the grass. To survive a horse needs grass, and to grow grass need fertilization, which are provided by the waste products of the horse’s digestive tract. It is a continuous cycle, and, if one did not have the other to help it grow it would not prosper as well. So now the cycle begins with the picking up of food.

When a horse bends down to pick up a piece of food that he wants to eat he uses his teeth. Teeth are very important for a horse. A horse uses them to hold on to the food he is eating and uses his molars to grind up the food into many small pieces. Also while the horse is grinding up food the tongue is being used to hold food in place so that it does not slip to the front of his mouth or change positions when he does not want it to.

After the horse has adequately ground up his food he swallows and sends it down his esophagus. The esophagus is one of the simplest parts in the horse’s digestion. It is just a passageway from the mouth to the stomach that is composed of rings of muscles which contracts and relaxes to bring the food to the stomach.

At the bottom of the esophagus there is a muscle called the cardiac sphincter. This muscle keeps food inside of the horse’s stomach, so if a horse suddenly had to stop eating and run away from...

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...gestion, then expels the remains of the undigested food so that more plants can grow. Then an animal eats that, and the cycle begins again. It is continuously going so that plants and animals all get the right amount of nutrients, to survive, so that many more generations can follow.

Works Cited

Oke, Stacey. 2010. The Horse’s Digestive System: Basics on the Structure and Function of the Equine Digestive Tract. Retrieved October 2, 2010 http://www.thehorse.com/pdf/factsheets/digestive-tract.pdf

2008. Horse Anatomy of the Digestive System. Retrieved October 2, 2010, http://www.understanding-horse-nutrition.com/horse-anatomy.html

2005. Colic. Retrieved October 2, 2010, http://www.ultimatehorsesite.com/info/colic.html

2010. How the Digestive System Works. Retrieved October 2, 2010, http://newrider/Library/Horse_Care/digestion.html

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