This work was carried out to evaluate the fractions of carbohydrates and estimate the apparent digestibility of these nutrients in two digestion assays with horses. In assay 1, five horses were allotted to a complete randomized blocks design and treatments were seven forages hays, alfalfa (Medicago sativa), peanut forage (Arachis pintoi), desmodio (Desmodium ovalifolium), pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), lime-yellow pea (Macrotyloma axillare), stylo (Stylosanthes guianensis) e coastcross (Cynodon dactylon), evaluated with the mobile nylon bag technique. In assay 2, four horses were allotted to a 4 × 4 Latin Square design and fed with coastcross hay with four different processed forms with the objective of evaluating whether a reduction of the particle size affected the carbohydrate digestibility. Results showed that horses had high digestion of non-fibrous carbohydrate and hydrolysable carbohydrate and rapidly fermentable carbohydrate fractions of forages. Among the forages analyzed, peanut forage, stylo and lime-yellow pea, presented high nutrient digestibility, and the peanut forage nutrients presented digestibility above 70%, demonstrating potential to be used in diets for horses. The coastcross hay processing in different grinding degrees does not affect the fibrous and non-fibrous carbohydrate fractions digestibility. Analysis of fibrous and non-fibrous carbohydrate fractions is a good indicative of nutritional value of feeds, and could be included in the evaluation of the quality of diets for horses.
digestibility; forages; grasses; horses; legumes
