Digestive health in the horse is one of the most important contributors to their overall health on many levels. Keeping your horse’s digestive microbiome healthy and balanced will greatly contribute to their metabolic function, digestive ability, and proper utilization of foods to gain nutrient value. When it is out of balance, your horse is more prone to many maladies including not just colic and gas, but poor healing, poor immune function, metabolic concerns, and inflammation. Triphala is well known and highly revered combination of three nuts or herbs in Ayurvedic Medicine, being highly recommended and utilized for digestive health and a laundry list of other health problems. Triphala is one combination of herbs that most horses can benefit from on many levels to improve their health and soundness.
Proper digestion in the horse is one main component that I attempt to address with most horse owners. It is extremely important but too often overlooked in its value and importance. Many horse owners do recognize that digestive problems are present, such as when their horse has a history of gas, bloating, colic or loose stools, including ‘fecal water syndrome’. If these problems are present, yes, they do imply a problem with your horse’s digestion and an imbalance of their digestive microbiome, but these clinical symptoms are not always present in every horse. For other horses, you may encounter stomach or hindgut ulcers, or simply no obvious problems outside of those not visible to the untrained eye. Those horses often have feces which are dry in nature with undigested forage material, or they have feces with a foul odor, or mucous present with a shiny surface. These are all symptoms of not just poor digestive health, but an imbalanced digestive bacterial microbiome.
Digestive health in the horse is conditionally dependent upon many factors, but includes:
- Diet (forage and grains)
- Supplement regimen
- Lifestyle (exercise, turnout, and confinement)
- Stress (mental and physical)
- Pain
- Medication
When the digestive health is poor and the microbiome is out of balance, this may highly contribute to:
- Behavioral problems
- Poor digestion and assimilation of nutrients in food
- Improper fermentation of foods and forages
- Ulcers (hindgut and foregut)
- Loose stools
- Mucous in stools
- Inflammation
- Allergies
- Lameness (joint, hoof, and laminitis)
- Tendon conditions
- Poor healing and recovery
- Metabolic concerns and obesity
- General immune concerns
- Increased worm burdens
The digestive microbiome is being directly connected to a host of health problems in most species, including the horse. When the digestive microbiome is out of balance, then there is a state of ill-health in the horse or host species. This then greatly contributes to the process of chronic inflammatory changes in the body of the horse, which then leads to most health problems. Thus, restoring balance and health in the gut of the horse is one of the main factors that I address in my consultations, and why I ask the owners for photos of their horse’s feces. The feces are like a window into the body of the horse. A photo can be worth a thousand words.
Triphala and Digestive Health in the Horse
Triphala is a combination of three very powerful herbs which has been utilized heavily in Ayurvedic Medicine for centuries. These herbs, or truly nuts and fruits, are Phyllanthus embilica (Amalaki), Terminalia bellerica, and Terminalia chebula. They are packed with vital components which benefit overall health, which includes tannins, antioxidants, and various nutrients to benefit the body and digestion. The combination is considered ‘neutral’ or slightly warming, but has a drying effect which benefits loose stools. The warming effect helps to stir up the digestive fire, which is like adding warmth to a pot on a stove. The tannins that are present are bitter in taste, but aid digestion, helping to remove impurities and detoxify the body of the horse. Triphala is a powerful antiinflammatory on all levels, not just the gut or digestion, and is well known to impact many body sytems outside of the gut, including the eyes. Triphala can aid the horse with dry and hard to pass feces as well as the horse with loose stools or diarrhea. Essentially, at a higher dose, Triphala will act more like a mild laxative, but at the lower dose, it helps to dry up loose stools.
Triphala has been heavily studied and researched in modern science, with the benefits well established. Clinical research has noted that Triphala possesses:
- Anti-inflammatory properties
- Antioxidant properties
- Appetite enhancing and balancing capabilities
- Immunomodulating Properties
- Adaptogenic properties
- Hypoglycemic or glucose balancing capabilities
- Anti-cancer properties
- Oral health benefits
- Gut microbiome balancing effects
- Weight reduction properties
Every one of these benefits is directly linked to the ability of Triphala herb powder to impact the gut microbiome of the horse, which we have noted in our clinical research. Given that most health conditions are created as a result of poor digestion and an imbalanced digestive microbiome, then if we correct that problem, health can be restored or greatly improved. This is precisely what Triphala herb powder does in the horse, and I view it as one of the premier gut-tonics for the horse and generally recommend it to most horse owners.
How to Use Triphala Herb Powder in Your Horse?
Triphala herb powder is available in a variety of forms and in different combinations that we offer horse owners. It is generally mixed with an alfalfa or timothy pellet, along with water and other recommended supplements. It is bitter in nature and has a distinct drying effect when taken orally, so for best results it is combined with the alfalfa pellets and water.
The three fruits combined to make Triphala herb powder can be found in their pure form, a concentrated tannin extract, or combination with other herbs to benefit digestion. The pure herb form is commonly used by many horse owners , especially when found in one of our combination formulas to further enhance digestion. The concentrated tannin form of the Triphala extract is also commonly used by horse owners, but is more potent in its action and drying effect upon the body, thus reserved for those horses that are very overweight, have more serious digestive complaints, or more complicated health issues.
The Triphala forms that we offer include:
- Pure Triphala powder in bulk
- Triphala tannin concentrated extract (Cur-OST EQ Tri-Gut)
- Triphala tannin concentrated extract with guggul (Cur-OST EQ Tri-Guggul)
- SV Gut 1 formula
- SV Gut 2 combination
- SV Gut 3 combination
The concentrated Triphala tannin extract can also be found in our Cur-OST EQ Total Body & Joint formula for those horse owner with metabolic horses and associated concerns.
If you have a horse with a health problem, evident or not, it would be wise to add Triphala in some form to their daily regimen to support their digestive health and overall health. There is a reason that it is so heavily used in Ayurvedic Medicine and recommended as a daily tonic for most individuals.
Author: Tom Schell, D.V.M, CVCH, CHN
Recommended Reading:
Why is Gut Health So Important in Your Horse? – Nouvelle Research Official Website
A Novel Approach to Balancing the Equine Digestive Microflora
What’s Your Horse’s Poop Telling You? – SecondVet
Hi Dr Schell, does your EQ Total Body and Joint supplement that you list above also contain Vitamin E? I see it listed in your EQ Total but not in Total Body and Joint. I’m wondering if some of the Ingredients in this nutrient packed supplement are in fact the Vitamin E carriers. I’ve been using your Total Body and Joint for many months now and am quite happy with it. Thank you!
Hi Janice, The EQ Total Body & Joint does not contain Vitamin E and in reality, the only reason the vitamin E is in the EQ Total Support is to provide antioxidant protection for the herbs in the formula. The EQ Total Body & Joint contains a much higher level of internal antioxidant support, so it is not required. Thanks.
Tom Schell, D.V.M.