salt

What are your views of putting salt in horses feed??
I put a little bit of salt in my horses feed if she has been sweating when working.. I no alot of people will say to buy her a salt block, I have tried about 5 different ones (flavours and stuff like that) and she will not lick it, I don't think she likes salt too much but I think if she's sweating she is losing the salt out of her body.

Just wondered what your thoughts were on this?????

Our horses have around 2 salt blocks in there turnout additionally when we feed them bran, beet pulp, etc. We add some salt to the feed. This way they are constantly getting supply to salt! :)

We used to put salt in our horses feed, now we just make sure there are salt blocks in the pastures for them. And in the summer, we put it in the stalls to.

When we bought TJ I was concerned about her weight and so we sought out the advice of an equine nutritionist, that happens to work at our local co-op.

He is also the consultant for the next county over's animal control dept. He's the one that goes out to check on horses when a call has come in regarding their health and safety. He makes the determination whether the horses should be removed from the owners.

We also visited him at length regarding salt blocks vs mineral blocks. His opinion is that if you have a "trace mineral block" available 24/7 for the horse, that is all that is needed. But it must be a "trace mineral" not just a "mineral block". He said it is ok to have both, but not necessary as the trace mineral block has adequate salt in it.

It is just one persons opinion, but that is what we have done.

I don't add salt to any horse's feed anymore. They are pretty good at knowing when they need salt and they know how much to eat. The horses where I board have access to a trace mineral salt block in the pasture and now Onyx has one in her stall as well. The only reason I can see to add salt directly to their feed is if they aren't drinking enough water and you add salt to encorage them to drink and retain more water in ther systems.

Horses may start licking people...This could mean that they need more salt...

Raini (sarah's horse) is funny, she will just lick for no reason...Lol.

We keep a white salt block out with the horses, but they generally ignore it. We also have a pasture block (Equimin, I think) which is a lot less hard and they can chew off chunks. It has many different minerals as well as salt.

Sodium (salt) is the only nutrient that horses will actually have cravings for. They will eat to satisfy their salt requirement. An average horse requires 1-2oz's of salt per day to meet their requirement at rest. If this is not met a chronic low level dehydration will result that may go un-recognized but that can lead to their bodies not working 100% as it should. Diets too high in potassium can reduce a horses salt hunger so that they might not seek out salt from a salt block. Therefore during heavy work or high temperatures adding table salt to your horses grain is a very good idea. They should also have access to a plain white salt block. You might also offer a colored traced mineral block but a plain white one should be available too becuase if your horse is craving salt it then has plain salt available.

I would not add salt to my horse's feed no matter how much he sweated, and I rode endurance. I have a salt block AND a mineral block available to my horse. You can also offer loose salt, but again, I would not put it in the feed. Horses will eat what they need.