Salt is a necessary ingredient of most mixed feeds. Despite that, though, I like to have a salt block permanently in my stalls. Horses hunger for access to salt night and day. You can identify that your horse is licking away at his salt block due to the lick marks that will be clear.
All of this may sound like basic horse sense, but you could be amazed at just how many horse owners, including some of the big men in the bizz, who consider their responsibility satisfied when they get a salt block in place in the stall. The responsibility doesn’t actually end there; you would like to ensure the salt block stays clean and free from grime and cobwebs. You would like to make sure your pony is actually eating the salt. Just as you’d be worried if your horse refuses to take his feed, you ought to be concerned if he refuses to touch the salt. In such an event, try shifting the salt to your horse’s feed tub. He’s going to benefit himself because he will need to move the block around to get at his feed, and the movements will rub off salt onto the feed. Your horse is getting his salt that way.
From personal experience, I’m persuaded that horses need salt in their diet all year through and not during summer only.
Unless a pony sweats copiously, I don’t include electrolytes in my horse’s water or feed. There is no need. Racing horses do sweat copiously while on a race and after it, and so they have got to be given electrolytes. Electrolytes must be given to ponies and horses involved in intense sports like polo and show events. Most horses used for just normal riding of the non-strenuous kind don’t sweat enough to justify getting electrolytes.
Try to go easy on the electrolyte quantity. Keep a watch on the kind of activity a horse is utilized for and the degree of hard work he is put through. Horses at riding training schools, with their comparatively low level of exertion, don’t need electrolytes the same way as horses that work up a big sweat running hard cross country or jumping high and continuous over an extend spell of time do. If you happen to have got a horse that doesn’t sweat even after a high degree of effort, watch out. You should be calling your veterinarian to come over immediately.
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