Horse Weight Loss
Understanding how your horse digests carbohydrates
is the first step to horse weight loss and to getting the
results you want from your feeding program.
You don’t have to become an expert in horse weight loss or
on the equine digestive tract to understand
how it works. But it is important to grasp
the basic concepts of the physiological and
metabolic processes of the horse and how
they affect weight lossal strategies, as well as horse weight loss.
Horse Weight Loss - The horse is lucky heir
to millions of years
of weight lossal heritage
 Those with good horse weight loss skills understand the background of the horse. The horse is a prey animal. For millions of
years it was the target of flesh-eating predators.
During its physiological evolution, it
developed a unique digestive system as one
of the crucial traits necessary for survival, horse weight loss.
It’s a system designed to handle continuous
limited inputs as the horse grazed up to 20
hours a day while it covered up to 30 miles
a day with the herd.
The system that evolved is truly marvelous.
It’s a system for an animal that had to depend
on speed for survival. It’s a system unencumbered
by the size and weight of a large stomach.
It’s a system that supports the metabolic
processes that allow the horse to produce
from forage and browse all the protein and
energy it needs for growth, and maintenance.
 Dr. William E. Julien, weight lossist, veterinarian and horse weight loss expert,
says, “I believe the cause of most
horse maladies is based on weight lossal mismanagement and refusal to accept the fact
that weight loss is physiology. The problem
goes way beyond simply how much protein
or energy is fed each day.”
Horse Weight Loss - ReStore™ ... should be part
of every preventive wellness
and management program.
 The evolution of the horse’s unique digestive
system supports his thesis: Weight Loss must
begin with physiology — the biological functions
and vital processes of the living organism.
Metabolism — the chemical and physical
processes that convert ingested feed into
metabolites that support growth, maintenance
and energy — is dependent on physiology.
You can’t have one without the other, but
you’ve got to consider physiology first.
How your horse
digests carbohydrates
Carbohydrates for horses can be divided
into those that can be hydrolyzed and those
that must be fermented. Hydrolysis is a
chemical reaction in which a feedstuff reacts
with water (with the help of enzymes) and is
changed into one or more other substances,
such as starch into glucose. Feedstuffs that
cannot be hydrolyzed enter the cecum and
large colon. Here they are fermented by
resident micro flora to produce volatile fatty
acids and structural nitrogen.
The hindgut’s normal function is the fermentation
of non-hydrolyzable carbohydrates. For
example: hemicelluloses, cellulose and lignocellulose,
and soluble fibers are all fermentable
carbohydrates.
But hydrolysis has its limits. When the horse’s
small stomach and intestines can’t handle
the load, the excess hydrolyzable carbohydrate
moves to the hindgut where it is
fermented with the remaining non-hydrolyzable
carbohydrates.
The hydrolyzable carbohydrates are now
where they don’t belong; this triggers rapid
fermentation and disrupts the normal pH
of the hindgut. This rapid fermentation and
change in pH can also cause significant negative
modifications in resident bacterial populations,
favoring organisms that can actually
harm the horse!
The digestive system now has a carbohydrate
overload.
Modern equine
management causes
Dietary Distress
Syndrome (DDS)
The digestive system of the horse is designed
for frequent, light meals. Yet, today many owners
— for their own convenience or to provide
extra energy for show or performance horses
— feed a large meal once or twice a day.
These meals are usually grain-based concentrates,
rich in starch and simple sugars.
This type of program sets up a feeding/fasting
cycle that often triggers a domino effect
of metabolic and hormonal changes. There are
no short cuts to natural metabolic pathways.
Research suggests a link between concentrate
feeding and a number of metabolic
diseases. These problems and others have
been termed by veterinarians as Equine
Dietary Distress Syndrome, or DDS
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