When the subject of salt comes up in everyday life, the talk is usually of table salt or livestock salt. These salts are compounds of caustic soda and hydrochloric acid, i.e. sodium chloride. Both sodium and chlorine are essential components of a healthy, balanced and nutritionally appropriate diet for horses. These two minerals primarily serve to maintain osmotic pressure in the extracellular fluid and to regulate water and acid-base balance. Particular attention should be paid to salt intake during the grazing season and when sweat loss occurs due to high temperatures.
How much salt does my horse need?
In principle, salt requirements are tailored to the individual characteristics of the organism. Depending on the level of exertion and the resulting loss of sweat, the salt requirement for a full-sized horse can vary between 50g and 200g per day. Due to the high loss of sodium and chloride through sweat (around 30 mg Na and 55 mg Cl per kg of live weight in 10 ml of sweat), the requirement for these increases significantly during exercise. A competition horse therefore requires significantly more salt than a horse ridden for leisure, due to the high rate of sweat loss. Similarly, salt requirements increase as the ambient temperature rises.
Does nature provide enough salt?
If we consider basic feedstuffs such as grass and cereals, it is virtually impossible for them to meet the animal’s natural requirements due to their low salt content. Only the sodium chloride content in beet and molasses is slightly higher.
Finding the right balance!
In a horse’s diet, deficiencies or excesses of essential nutrients manifest themselves in a wide variety of ways. This is also the case with salt. A deficiency is primarily characterised by physical weakness and listlessness, but also by a lack of thirst and poor digestion. An excess of salt in a horse’s diet, usually caused by nibbling on a salt block, often results in high water intake and strain on the kidneys. Particular care is required with foals. Salt licks must not be accessible to foals, as excessive intake can lead to severe diarrhoea.
How can you supplement your diet with salt in a targeted way?
Salt licks are a tried-and-tested favourite amongst horses. A salt lick that horses can access freely ensures that every horse’s needs are met as effectively as possible. The well-known 10kg salt blocks (refined) consist of pure sodium chloride.
Himalayan salt blocks, on the other hand, consist of 97% sodium chloride, with the remaining 3% comprising around 80 other minerals. This extremely hard and crystalline salt block also has the advantage that horses can only lick the salt rather than bite it off. The untreated, natural and mineral-rich Himalayan salt block has now become a popular choice in numerous stables and among horses.
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