06/21/2025
Make sure your horses are getting enough salt and have access to clean water and shade, especially with this heat wave coming this week.
❎Salt blocks do NOT provide enough salt; horses tongues are too smooth to effectively use them.
❎Any red salt contains iron (looking at you, Himalayan salt). Horses in our area generally get too much iron - it is important to limit extra iron intake (and supplement zinc & copper, but that's a post for another day).
✅Regular sized horses should have 2 tablespoons of loose, white salt per day as a baseline. This amount increases with exercise and heat. I recommend feeding it with their meals so you can be confident they've eaten it.
✅You can offer extra salt (either loose or in block form) free choice for your horse - they can choose to have more salt in addition to their baseline requirement.
✅Salt is reasonably cheap - you can buy it in bulk! I order a 40 lb bag. You can also grab a few of those pour-spout containers in the baking aisle at the grocery store.
⚠️Iodized or non-iodized? This depends on where your horse lives and what else it eats. Horses do need iodine, but too much can be harmful. If your horse has no other source of iodine, get iodized salt. If there is iodine in another supplement or feed your horse gets, get non-iodized salt. Check with your nutritionist about this and read labels (and hay test results) carefully!
