Do horses use very different energy systems to humans as they have a very low carbs intake?

Question

large animals such as horses, are very athletic and yet have an extremely low carbohydrate intake to help sustain such prolonged aerobic activity. If the do not use a glycogen fuelled aeorbic energy system like us, what system do they have?

Answer 1

horses and cows have a way of digesting plant material and breaking it down into its sugars. So grass and hay would have more carbs for them than they would for people, who lack the digestive enzymes to do the trick.

I do think their energy system is probably much like ours...probably all mammals share it. What may differ is the enzymes the different animals produce to help digest what they eat.

Answer 2

They do still have the same system and get their glucose from cellulose in grass.

They need to eat/graze for longer periods than us in order to gain sufficient carbs from this diet which is why competition horses are fed other higher carb foods such as grains. No different from human athletes carb loading before an event.

Cows are the same - constantly grazing or chewing cud. There reaches a point when the system can no longer provide sufficient energy to support an evolutionary increase in the size of an animal - this is apparently why elephants are the largest possible animal - even if they ate 24 hours a day they could not support a larger body mass.

Answer 3

Carbs are energy and when you don't use that energy they turn to fat. Please remember that a low carb "diet" will cause you to rebound your weight once you go off the diet. You have to make it a lifestyle change or you will just yo yo up and down. Proteins give you better longer energy than carbs but you still need some carbs that come from fruits and veggies. It stands to reason that you will have low energy just a few months after your delivery as well as trying to diet. You can try some protein boosters to see if that helps but you may have to introduce some good carbs into your diet in order to regain your lost energy

Answer 4

The energy system is the same, just how they get the energy. Horses have small stomaches but large digestive tracts to digest the plant material. They do have some bacterial digestion to further break down cellulose, the cecum, which would be like a giant appendix, but it is not extremely efficient as the cow's rumen. Cows can get by on much lower quality food than horses can for that reason.

Answer 5

The horse is a non ruminant herbivore that uses dietary carbohydrate as the primary energy source. In contrast to the situation in ruminants, carbohydrates are exposed to pancreatic and intestinal enzymes before reaching the major regions of fermentation. Nonstructural carbohydrates, such as starch, maltose, and sucrose, are hydrolysed and absorbed as mono saccharides proximal to the cecum.
As a consequence of the horses digestive and metabolic strategy, the horse has plasma glucose concentrations intermediate between those of ruminants and simple stomached omnivores.
Horses should be fed as individuals, consideration should be given to the following factors;
-digestive and metabolic differences among horses that result in some being "hard keepers" and others being "good doers", and appropriate adjustments in feed intake to compensate for this variation.
-variation in production and performance capabilities of the animal and expectations of the owner.
-health status of the animal.
-variations in the nutrient availability in feed ingredients.
-interrelationships among nutrients.
-previous nutritional status of the horse.
and
-climatic and environmental conditions.

The muscles developed in different breeds of horse and selectively trained can accomodate, in varying degrees, aerobic and non-aerobic energy utilisation. For example, the thoroughbred can maintain a sprint for longer than a quarter horse yet the quarter horse may be quicker over shorter distances, this is due to genetic predisposition for particular types of muscle mass.

Answer 6

Hay and grass are essentially pure carbs, not to mention grain. The carbs are sugar(glucose) molecules that make up cellulose. We humans can't digest cellulose, but horses and cows and even rabbits can, and that is where they get their calories from. Horses are on VERY high carb diets. Where did you think they were getting their calories? They obviously don't eat meat or fat. What else is there?

Answer 7

Large animals like horses and cows need to eat a lot of grass to survive and will therefore spend most of the day eating.

Answer 8

Read what a carbohydrate is before you go asking dumb questions. (hint) cellulose is a carbohydrate and is the main component of grasses.

Answer 9

Grass, hay, and oats are low in carbs? Really?

Answer 10

they have to eat for several hours a day to keep them selfels going./////////////////