Abstract: The following case report describes a diaphragmatic hernia and rib fractures in an adult horse with signs of recurrent colic. A 13-year-old Standardbred gelding was referred to the emergency duty for abdominal pain. The horse was subjected to explorative laparotomy, which revealed a right displacement of the colon, an impaction of the transverse colon and a retroflexion of the cecum. Necropsy revealed a diaphragmatic hernia (approximately two centimetres in diameter) in the left mid-region with the greater omentum adherent to the seventh and eighth ribs, the pleura and to the pericardium. A prior external trauma during a riding accident was thought to be the cause of the described rib fractures.