Key Points

Methods          7 minuets

Begin the class by asking the students what they had for their most recent meal.

     Show the slide titled “Human Digestive Process.”  Have the students list the steps that food takes in the human digestive tract. 

When you are going to eat your favorite meal describe the steps your food takes:

·         You bite into your food.

·         You chew your food

·         You swallow you food.

·         Then your food travels from your mouth to your esophagus

·         Once your food travels from your esophagus it enters the stomach where your food is broken down by the acids in your stomach.

·         When you eat a large amount of food your stomach gets full you get the sensation of being full.

·         Your food travels and from the stomach to the small intestine

·         From there it travels to the large intestine and is expelled from the body.

Believe it or not the process done by the Equine Digestive System is similar to that of a human.  

Today we will cover: the path that food takes through the digestive tract of a horse.  We will separate a diagram into the organs.  Take a quiz over horse digestive anatomy.

Teacher led Discussion

Key Points

Methods         25 minuets

Begin the PowerPoint presentation with the fourth slide entitled Steps of Equine Digestion: Fore Gut

¨  Digestion for horses starts in the mouth. 

¤  Horses have teeth on both the top and bottom of their jaw.  In the front of their mouth they have a set of teeth known as fore teeth and a space then the molars.

¤  The Fore teeth in a horse are what they use to bite grasses and initially grasp their food.

¤  The grinding motion made by the horse as it eats stimulates the production of saliva by the salivary glands.

(Slide 5)Into the Mouth…..

¤  Once the grasses are grabbed by the Fore teeth it is then passed to the back teeth where the grasses and food are ground up.

¤  After the food is ground up in the back of the mouth it is held there and mixed thoroughly with saliva.

(Slide 6)Fore Gut…………....Esophagus

¤  The saliva helps the food to pass down the esophagus to the stomach.

¤   The food is forced down the esophagus by muscle contractions.

¤  The food travels down the esophagus into the horses’ stomach.

(Slide 7) Fore Gut………………Stomach

¤  In a horses’ stomach just like a human stomach the food is mixed with acids and enzymes that help to break down their foods.

¤  Unlike humans when horses eat a large amount of food and their stomachs get full this can be very uncomfortable and even painful for horses.  Horses have a valve in their stomach that is a “one-way” valve.

¤  Horses can’t regurgitate or vomit if they eat too much.  So it is very important to feed a horse an adequate amount of food to fill its nutrition needs and yet not large enough proportions to completely fill their stomachs.

¤  The Digestive tract is a “One –way” system and once food is consumed it must pass naturally through the system.  

(Slide 8) Hind Gut ………………Cecum

¨  The first section of the Hind Gut is called the CECUM.

¤  Know as the “Water Gut”

¤  The Cecum is a blind pouch about 4 feet long.

¤  The main purpose of the Cecum is to serve as a site for bacterial fermentation in the horse.

¤  The cecum breaks down the fiber in the food into a useable energy source

(Slide 9) Hind Gut………….Large Colon

¨  The second portion of the Hindgut is the LARGE COLON

¤  The large colon is 10-12 feet in length.

¤  Holds up to 20 gallons of semi-liquid material.

¤  The main purpose of the large colon is to absorb carbohydrates, which were broken down from cellulose in the cecum.

(Slide 10) Hind Gut……..........Small Colon

¨  The third part of the hind gut is called the SMALL COLON

¤  The small colon is 10-12 feet long

¤  The small colon can hold 5 gallons of material.

¤  It is the area where the majority of water in the horse's diet is absorbed.

¤  It is also the site where the fecal balls are formed.

(Slide 11)Hind Gut………………...Rectum

¨  The Final section of the Hind Gut is called the RECTUM

¤  The rectum is about 12 inches long.

¤  It serves as a holding place for waste matter prior to expulsion

¤  Connects the small colon to the outside world.

Upon completion of these slides Show the students slide number 12 titled

Breakdown of the Horse Digestive Tract

You will notice this covers all the organs in the Equine Digestive Tract.  Also on this diagram is the percentile make up of each organ. 

Ask students: How many types of teeth does a human have in their mouth?

What is the organ in the human body that functions similarly to the Cecum?    Ans. Appendix

Why does it need to hold semi-liquid material as opposed to solids?

What part of the Digestive tract is the largest? 

What parts make up the Fore Gut / Hind Gut?

Key Points

Methods         12 Minuets

Have the students take out a piece of notebook paper and something to write with.  Pull up the slide entitled Quiz/ Worksheet.  Inform the students this is a quiz to be done individually and will be counted as a quiz grade.  They are to list the organs according to the corresponding number on the diagram.  In addition to naming the parts they are to write 1 fact about the organ that was in the PowerPoint Presentation.

Allow the students about 7 minutes to complete the quiz.  Once they have finished pick the quizzes up from the students.  Hand them the diagram of the horse anatomy and have them fill the blanks.    

Quiz and Worksheet over Equine Digestion 

Key Points

Methods

Make sure all the worksheets are turned in about 3 minutes before the bell.

Ask students what was covered during the class.

After receiving several answers conclude the class with..

So today we:

¨  Analyzed the path food follows in the horse in a short paragraph.

¨  Identified the parts of the Equine Digestive Tract on Worksheet provided.

¨  Take a short quiz over Equine Anatomy.

¨   Complete diagram of Equine Digestive Tract

 Tomorrow we will cover The Nutrient Requirements of a horse.                    

References

Oral questions

Teacher led discussion