Salt is an essential part of a horse’ daily nutrition, but it may be quite easy to take it for granted as many horse owners consider providing what they think are more important minerals for their horses.
Some of the mineral requirements of your pet may be provided by the forage that are offered to your horse. However, the salt content of hay and grasses are not enough to meet what your horse actually needs. If you are not able to provide your horse with the appropriate amount of salt that it needs to stay healthy, you will later notice that your equine is slowly developing some health issues as a result of its inadequate salt intake.
How Much Salt Does Your Horse Need?
An average horse will need about fifty grams of salt each day. If you’re feeding commercially made feed for your equine, then it should have about 0.1% added in it. You might still want to add a tablespoon or two (15-30 grams), or as needed, and depending on your equine’s nutritional needs. Performance and competition horses will need more salt to replace the energy that they release as they sweat during performance or a competition. Other factors, such as the weather, the season of the year, training level, and so on, will also affect your horse salt requirement. (more…)