Folks, salt is important for your horse. Unlike us heathen humans, horses self-regulate their salt intake quite well. They don’t get enough to meet requirements naturally occurring in their feed, so make sure you provide some. Here are a few options.
Trace mineral block: My horse quite likes these, but I give him a vitamin/mineral supplement, so I worry about any mineral toxicity issues it could cause.
Himalayan salt block: He likes these pretty little wheels a little too much, disposing of one in about a week.
Redmond Rock: Had one of these sitting in the trough for a while and he won’t touch it. Sad.
So, we’re going to try the PLAIN WHITE SALT. This is still second best to a feeder of loose plain salt, which I hear is the closest to ideal, but I don’t have a feeder or a source of a gazillion pounds of loose salt. We’ll see if it does better than “the rock”!
KER did a study on loose versus block salt. The horses did consume more loose salt at first, but both groups ended up in the same range after a couple weeks. In other words, blocks are fine. 🙂
http://www.equinews.com/sites/default/files/downloads/Voluntary%20Intake%20of%20Loose%20Versus%20Block%20Salt%20and%20Its%20Effect%20on%20Water%20Intake%20in%20Mature%20Idle%20Thoroughbreds.pdf
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Previous two horses cruised thru mineral blocks, ignored the white ones. One of the current horses LOVES his white salt block, to the point that licking it is a comfort behavior for him. We have them everywhere for him and even take a small one with us to shows. Horses are weird.
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