Comparison of Feed Digestibility between Ponies, Standardbreds and Andalusian Horses Fed Three Different Diets

Abstract

Ponies and some horse breeds such as Andalusians exhibit an ‘easy keeper’ phenotype and tend to become obese more readily than other breeds such as Standardbreds. Various hypotheses have been proposed, including differences in appetite or metabolic efficiency. This study aimed to investigate the effect of breed on nutrient digestibility. Ponies, Standardbreds and Andalusian horses were adapted to consuming either a control fibre-based diet (n = 9), a hypercaloric cereal-rich diet (n = 12) or a hypercaloric fat-rich diet (n = 12) over 20 weeks. Total faecal collection was performed over 24 h to determine apparent total tract digestibility of gross energy, dry matter (DM), neutral detergent fi..