OK I think I have read one of the bizarrest ideas I have heard in a long time. That Head Position matters to digestion in a horse. Here’s the exact quote -

Feeding at chest level makes it easier for the horse to digest the food, which means he is getting more nutrients out of his food, than he would be if he was eating at ground level.

I could not believe what I was reading when I read this - I said outloud - WHAT?!?!
I was tempted to write this person to find out where they heard such a thing - and if any of my readers have heard this please comment and point me to the reasoning or research behind this.

Let me take a moment to give you my opinion as to why I feel this is nonsense. First horses are grazers, they are not giraffes in which there food is in the trees, they are like cattle and deer and other such animals in which they graze the ground for their food. They were built this way, thousands of years of being on this earth has not changed the fact that horses are grazers. In order to be a grazer your head must be down to eat.

Lets put some facts to the design of the horse as a grazer, the first part of digestion is the mouth and teeth and the chewing process, so I can only assume that the individual writing the article that included the quote I am refering to realizes that this could be the only thing associated with digestion that head position could remotely change - at least I can hope that they realize this. So what happens to teeth position when the horse raises and lowers its head, well interestingly enough it does change. If you examine a typical horses mouth from a side profile with the incisor teeth (front teeth) exposed with the head elevated to your eye level you will notice that the majority have a very mild overbite in this position, basically about 1/2 cm or so, very mild almost imperceptible. When the head is lowered so that the nose is close to the ground the lower jaw shifts forward allowing for the front incisors to meet more exactly which gives the horse a better cutting surface to graze pasture and cut grass to eat.

So what does this do to the molars which do the majority of the grinding and first part of digestion, it also moves the lower molars forward about 1/2 cm or so. Well the molars consist of 6 teeth top and bottom on both sides of the mouth with each tooth being between 3 and 4 cm long by 2cm wide of chewing surface. The little 1/2 cm movement in the lower jaw means absolutely nothing when given this chewing surface not to mention that the jaw completely moves well well well beyond that 1/2 cm movement while chewing and it does not matter which position the head is in when the horse chews.

So unless your horse has a jaw, neck, or even a breathing problem such as COPD, heaves, it does not matter what position your horses head is in for digestion and if the horse was designed to be a grazer what makes people think that they would have better digestion if their head is raised??? Feeding at chest level is a convenience for humans not a horse health benefit!

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