Equine Digestion Trials Require Collection of Urine and Feces

It’s one of those jobs no one would do by choice, but at Kentucky Equine Research, urine and feces of horses in a digestion trial must be collected without mixing the waste products.

Two days prior to the beginning of the collection period, horses are outfitted with metabolic collection harnesses, commonly referred to as “nappies,” which allow complete and separate accumulation of urine and feces. Horses are stalled on rubber matting and nappies are emptied three times a day.

Horses are kept in stalls when outfitted in nappies, but they are exercised on a mechanical walker or hand-walked twice a day as long as the collection period lasts.