03/10/2026
Your horse is a home. Not just to all of your hopes and dreams, but also to quadrillions (yes, quadrillions!) of microorganisms that have set up shop in your horse's digestive tract.
The sheer scale of the population of bacteria inside your horse's hindgut is nearly unfathomable. Leading equine nutritionist David Frape once wrote “…the bacteria cells in the digestive tract of the horse number more than ten times all the tissue cells in the body.”
The microbial population is incredibly vast, but also very sensitive; therefore, they must be carefully maintained to protect against changes that can lead to digestive upset, colic, and laminitis. Find out how at the link in the comments.
Sources:
Kauter, A., Epping, L., Semmler, T., Antao, E. M., Kannapin, D., Stoeckle, S. D., Gehlen, H., LĂĽbke-Becker, A., GĂĽnther, S., Wieler, L. H., & Walther, B. (2019). The gut microbiome of horses: current research on equine enteral microbiota and future perspectives. In Animal microbiome, https://doi.org/10.1186/s42523-019-0013-3
Frape, D. (2010). Equine Nutrition and Feeding. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.