Happy Monday AM I plan to return to the applications of the aids (for specific results) but we need to understand another building block in the Pyramid and that is NUTRITION. Lesson # 19 Lets first look at the digestive system of Rumenents (deer - elk - sheep - goats - camels - cattle - buffallo etc) These animals have several things in common ** Cloven hooves - ** Incisor teeth on lower front jaw and a hard palet on upper front jaw - ** a 4 compartment stomach consisting of 1) the Rumen (a very large organ) 2) The Reticulun a side pocket of the Rumen. 3) The Omasum which removes the water. 4) aand the Abomasum ( the true stimach) The unique thing about Rumenents is that their food is digested by millions of Bacteria - each with their unique ability to digest certain foods. These bacteria live in the rumen and reticulum and reproduce at a very rapid rate. They litterally eat the foods the animal swallows and have the ability to change very poor quality feeds into high quality Proteins and carbohydrates in their cells. The bacteria are then moved to the Omasum where the excess water is removed. then moved to the Abomasum where they (the bacteria) are digested by chemical action and absorbed into the blood system in the small intestion. The bulk of the nutritient absorption occurs in the small intestion but there is some absorption in the large intestion. The feeding pattern for rumenents is as follows They will graze heavily several times a day then retire to a bedding area to chew their cud (a technique to remasticate the foods for better digestion by the bacteria.) You will see how this ties into horse nutrition soon. Now lets examin another type of digestion The Simple Stomach. Animals like the pig - dog - cats - man have this kind of digestion. The foods eaten by these animals are digested only by chemical action. Therefore the foods must be easily digested. If they were hard to digest the chemicals needed would digest the stomach also. The difference is basically Ruments can easily utilize poor quality feeds and survive very well. where as simple stomach animals must have high quality feeds that are easily digested. Now lets look at the horse. He is basically a simple stomach animal with an enlarged Cecum (an organ located between the small intestion and the large intestion) in which there is bacterial action for digestion. Remember that most nutritient absorption is in the small intestion. There for the horse is designed to graze often during the day and eat smaller quanities which keep them in a state of readieness if they must escape a predator by running away. The horse then can survive on Roughages only but was not designed to do Work as he is in our relationship with him. With this basic understanding of digestion in different animals we can start to develope a nutritional plan to fit our requirements of the horse. continued tomorrow VOTE INTELLEGENTLY
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 17:55:49 +0000
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