Salt for Horses

Sodium Chloride (salt):  It's one of the essential mineral compounds needed by animals.  Why?  It's part of our composition, and it's lost through blood, sweat, and tears (not the band!) It constantly needs to be replenished, and when horses are sweating more (like in the 110 temps we're having in Oklahoma right now), even more salt should be made available for horses.

Most horse owners are familiar with salt blocks, and they're an easy way to provide salt (and minerals).  The problem with salt blocks is that you can't control how much your horse is getting.  Many horses won't lick the block enough to meet their salt requirements, and some horses will bite into the block, getting too much salt and risking harm to their teeth or jaw.  Salt and mineral blocks were designed for cattle--they just spilled over to the horse industry because of their convenience.  Cattle have rougher tongues which make it easier for them to obtain their needed amount of salt from the block.  With that said, I fed salt blocks to my horses for many years without problems, and I do believe they're better than no salt at all.

The average-sized horse needs about 30 grams (1 oz) of sodium chloride a day.  Keep in mind, this requirement will go up (to 2-3 oz) if the horse is in work and consistently having sweat losses.  Even a horse just standing in the pasture when it's hot can have sweat losses and would require a greater amount of salt.

You may not know that grasses, hays, and most commercial feeds contain salt.  It is possible, though not likely, (unless you feed a large amount of a commercial feed) that your horse is getting the basic salt requirements (before sweat losses) without supplementation.  Oversupplementation of salt is believed to be unhealthy, so the best way to know how much to supplement is to calculate how much he is already getting in his diet.  This can be done by examining feed labels and having hay/ pastures samples analyzed by a company such as Equi-Analytical.  

Since salt is a compound needed by the body, salt deficiencies can have harmful consequences including reduced performance and  increased susceptibility to illness.  Consuming salt also encourages the horse to drink, and sufficient water intake is important for proper digestive function as well.

Whether you feed salt with a block or loose, just make sure your horse is getting enough salt in his diet. I feed loose iodized salt (the kind you get from the grocery store) to help meet iodine needs as well, but nearly any type of loose salt can meet sodium and chloride requirements for your horse.

Ta-ta!