Why Add Charcoal to Your Horse’s Diet?
Maintaining optimal gut health is essential for your horse's overall well-being, especially for those fed high-starch, grain-based diets to meet their energy needs. While these diets are designed to provide the necessary fuel, they can lead to digestive disturbances such as colic, gastric ulcers, and laminitis. These issues are often linked to gut pH imbalances and microbial dysbiosis (an imbalance in gut bacteria), which can interfere with digestion and nutrient absorption.
Charcoal offers a simple, safe, and effective solution to help maintain digestive health, reduce the risk of these common issues, and promote long-term gut well-being.
The Role of Charcoal in Horse Health
Our Charcoal Animal Feed Supplement is made from carefully sourced, sustainable Dorset hardwood, ensuring both environmental responsibility and high-quality for your horse. Here’s why adding charcoal to your horse’s daily feeding routine can make a significant difference:
Maintains Healthy Gut pH
A common challenge for horses fed high-starch (grain) diets is hindgut acidosis, where the pH of the hindgut becomes too acidic. This acidification disrupts the delicate microbial balance, leading to digestive issues. Charcoal helps neutralise excess acid in the hindgut, stabilising the pH and promoting a healthier, more balanced gut environment.
The optimal pH for healthy microbial fermentation in horses is around 6.0–6.5 and charcoal helps maintain this range, ensuring that digestion proceeds efficiently and the gut microbiome stays healthy.
Supports Gut Microbial Health
The horse’s gut hosts a complex community of beneficial bacteria, fungi, and protozoa, which work together to break down fibre and absorb nutrients. The porous structure of charcoal provides a surface for these beneficial microbes to thrive, especially those that help digest complex fibres like hemicellulose and pectin.
When your horse’s gut microbiome is healthy, nutrient absorption improves, and digestive issues caused by microbial imbalances are less likely. Charcoal can even support beneficial microbial populations in the hindgut, contributing to better digestion and overall health.
Adsorbs Toxins and Reduces Digestive Disturbances
Charcoal has a unique ability to act like a sponge, adsorbing harmful substances such as toxins, gases, and waste products from the gut. By removing these unwanted elements, charcoal reduces the risk of inflammation, gas build-up, and other digestive disturbances, such as colic.
This adsorptive property is particularly helpful for horses that may be prone to gut upset or digestive discomfort, helping to prevent colic episodes and other conditions that cause pain and discomfort.
Charcoal and Colic: A Real-Life Example
Our Charcoal Animal Feed Supplement has been particularly helpful for horses prone to digestive disturbances such as colic. Take Frances Bolt from Trowbridge, who shares her experience with us:
"I have been using Charcoal for my T.B gelding who is prone to Gassy Colic for a year now and found it to be a valuable addition to his feed. Instead of regular bouts of colic in previous years before using Charcoal, in the last year he has had just one, which is a vast improvement. I switched to The Dorset Charcoal Company because their product is one with very low 'food miles' and is consistently top quality. It is very good value for money, there is always an email to say when my order is being dispatched, and delivery is fast. A company and product that works, and I shall be sticking with."
This is a great example of how charcoal can help reduce the frequency of colic episodes, especially for horses prone to gas-related digestive upset. Charcoal’s adsorptive properties help remove excess gas and toxins from the gut, supporting overall digestive health and reducing the likelihood of colic.
Additionally, Sue Oakes from Moreton in Merseyside shared a similar experience:
"My horse had really sloppy droppings when stabled over the winter and fed only on hay. The charcoal supplement has made a vast difference to his digestive system and firmed up his droppings. Now I do not have to wash his bottom and back legs every morning."
Another customer, Joanne Comley commented:
“Since using Dorset Charcoal Granular Animal Feed Supplement, Marty's gut health has improved meaning he's much more comfortable in himself. His coat is shining and he's holding his weight so that he's working better and not stressing when he is. We've been spending less money on food since adding Dorset Charcoal Animal Feed Supplement to his diet and we're also currently seeing a reduction in vet bills of more than £100 a month.
It's really supporting Marty's gut balance and general health. Over the years I've learnt to take a straightforward approach to caring for the horses and keep it simple. For Marty that means we can get the best out of him and Em can get more time in the saddle. It's everything I wanted to achieve in one simple solution"
These examples show how charcoal can help improve a horse’s digestive function by adsorbing harmful substances and promoting a more stable gut environment, ultimately leading to better health and fewer digestive issues.
Feeding Management to Support Digestive Health in Horses
Horses are particularly vulnerable to digestive disturbances, especially when their diet is abruptly altered - such as switching from a high-forage to a high-starch, grain-based diet.
Though these changes are often made to meet performance needs, they can upset the delicate microbial balance in the gut, leading to serious issues like colic, diarrhoea, gastric ulcers, and laminitis.
To counteract these digestive problems, dietary strategies - including supplementation with, improved feeding management, and alternative feed sources - can be highly effective.
Charcoal in Horses' Diets
Charcoal is made by heating hardwood at high temperatures to create a carbon-rich, moderately porous substance. When included in your horse’s diet, it can help:
Regulate Fecal pH: Charcoal helps neutralise acidity in the hindgut, preventing conditions like hindgut acidosis and promoting a more stable gut environment.
Support Gut Health and Microbial Balance: The porous surface of charcoal supports beneficial microbes that aid in fibre digestion and nutrient absorption, leading to better overall digestive health.
Safe and Effective: Research indicates that when used at appropriate doses (such as 10 grams per kilogram of dry matter), hardwood charcoal is safe for horses and does not negatively impact nutrient digestibility, faecal characteristics, or blood parameters. It’s a natural, cost-effective solution for supporting digestive health.
Hardwood Charcoal vs. Activated Charcoal: What’s the Difference?
Although both hardwood charcoal and activated charcoal are made from carbon-rich organic materials, they differ significantly in their structure, production methods, and uses—especially in horse diets.
Hardwood Charcoal: This is made by heating hardwood (like Oak, Ash, or Hazel) at high temperatures. It has a moderately porous structure, which allows it to neutralise excess acids in the gut and support the growth of beneficial microbes without disrupting the gut’s microbial balance. Hardwood charcoal is gentle on the digestive system and ideal for long-term use in equine diets.
Activated Charcoal: Activated charcoal is created by heating hardwood charcoal to even higher temperatures in the presence of gases like steam or carbon dioxide. This process creates a highly porous structure, increasing its adsorptive power. While activated charcoal is effective at adsorbing toxins (which is why it’s used in medical treatments like poisoning), it is much too strong for routine use in horses. Its potent adsorptive properties can also strip the gut of essential beneficial bacteria, enzymes, and nutrients, potentially leading to further digestive imbalances and nutrient deficiencies.
In short, while activated charcoal is used primarily in medical settings (and should not be used in a horse’s regular diet), hardwood charcoal is specifically designed to support and maintain a healthy, balanced digestive system over the long term.
How Our Charcoal Animal Feed Supplement Works in Your Horse’s Gut
By adding charcoal to your horse’s diet, you’re helping regulate the pH of the hindgut and supporting the growth of beneficial microbes. In a high-starch diet, the hindgut can become overly acidic, leading to an imbalance in gut bacteria and conditions like colic or laminitis.
Charcoal’s porous structure adsorbs excess acid and toxins, promoting a healthy pH (around 6.0–6.5) and better nutrient absorption. This helps prevent microbial imbalances and digestive issues, ultimately improving your horse’s overall well-being. Our charcoal is BHA and FEI compliant and is also listed as a feed material by the Food Standard Agency, allowing horses to compete and race while taking the product.
How to Use Charcoal in Your Horse’s Diet
Incorporating charcoal into your horse’s daily feeding routine is simple. The recommended dosage is approximately 10 grams per kilogram of dry matter in their daily ration, which can be easily mixed with their regular feed. Charcoal is a natural, low-cost supplement that can be safely used over the long term to support your horse’s digestive health.
By adding charcoal to your horse’s diet, you're taking a natural, effective step to help maintain gut health, improve nutrient absorption, and reduce the risk of digestive disturbances.
Experience the Difference with Dorset Charcoal
Our Hardwood Charcoal Animal Feed Supplement is a natural, safe, and highly effective supplement for supporting your horse's digestive health. Whether you're aiming to maintain gut pH, improve nutrient absorption, or reduce digestive issues like colic and gastric ulcers, our Charcoal Animal Feed Supplement can make a noticeable difference.
Dorset Charcoal is sustainably sourced from local woodland, offering you a top-quality product that’s kind to both your horse’s digestive system and the environment. Our charcoal is designed to support the health of your horse's gut microbiome, reduce toxins, and promote optimal digestion. Whether you’re tackling colic, gastric discomfort, or simply want to enhance overall gut health. With fast delivery, great value, and a proven track record of success, it’s the simple, natural solution your horse needs.
Ready to take the next step in supporting your horse’s digestive health?
References:
Science Direct: The Dietary Components and Feeding Management as Options to Offset Digestive Disturbances in Horses
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