03/01/2026
SALT IN FEED IS NOT A THERAPY
As always, be careful what you read.
I find it interesting that when nutrients are proposed or mentioned as therapies, rather than simply part of a well-balanced diet, it's almost always by someone who has no nutrition qualifications, and who does not understand the basics.
Perhaps it's because a well-balanced diet isn't very exciting? Doesn't grab attention online? Or maybe because the person mentioning the therapy-nutrient simply does not understand foundation nutrition?
For example, salt is not a therapy to stop your horse biting or licking, or an antidote to potassium in spring grass.
Common salt is simply a provider of both sodium and chloride, two essential nutrients that make up part of a well-balanced diet.
Salt requirements vary according to sweat losses - usually from exercise - and yes, we do need to offer our horses salt separately to their forage/balancing feed or supplement, for this very reason.
Yes, horses will seek out salt if they are short, so they may lick surfaces, us or other horses to try and get the essential sodium they need (this is why most will lick a block).
If they have been short of sodium for some time, they will often consume large amounts either from a block (free choice), or if you offer saline solution (salt mixed in water) - much larger than you need to feed daily.
So be careful to drop the amount fed daily to take this into account. 50-60 g of salt daily for a 500 kg horse out of work, long term is too much and could cause a horse to refuse their feed, causing imbalance of other essential nutrients. 20-30 g daily along with a salt block will suffice, for a horse who is not noticeably sweating and who is not in regular work.
Salt blocks generally suffice for horses not in work, but working horses who sweat will not always take enough in from a block, so we add it to the feed.
(Salt is added to the water generally to help aid fast rehydration, and to add a little sodium to the diet).
Salt is not a therapy or detox or antidote to some other dietary component.
It is simply a supplier of two of the essential nutrients that make up a balanced diet.
Look out tomorrow for more information on salt including feeding recommendations.
In the meantime:
🐴Don't worry, buy a salt block if your horse doesn't have one.
🐴Please don't be syringing salt pastes into your horse having read that it is necessary to counteract potassium in spring grass - because this can irritate the stomach and/or cause gastric ulcers.
(Horses fed forage-based diets always take in excess potassium but guess what - they are more than capable of adjusting body levels of these essential electrolytes via their urine. If they can't, for example if they have severe kidney disease, they get very ill very quickly)
Watch out for nutribaloney!
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🐴🍏
