Many people are involved with horses, either as professionals or as a hobby. Most horse owners and trainers take great care and interest when it comes to feeding their horses. We would like to, share our knowledge and create the right conditions for accurate feeding.

Basics of feeding

The foundation of a horse's diet should be good forage. The hygienic quality of the forage should be given priority because horses are very sensitive to mould. A horse should eat at least 1 kg dry matter (DM) forage per 100 kg bw / day. For normal riding and hobby horses the forage ratio should be 1.5-2 kg DM per 100 kg bw / day. There is a variety of feedstuffs on the market. What you should choose depends on your horse needs and your storage limits. Depending on your choice of complement and analysis of the forage itself - different supplements, like salt, mineral feed and possibly vitamins, are usually needed. The minerals and vitamins needed, do not only depend on the feeding but also on the age, type and training of the horse.

Salt Needs

Horses need of salt is first dependent on how much they sweat. Salt is an electrolyte and affects the body's fluid balance. Sodium deficiency can lead to reduced blood volume and thus reduced performance. Prolonged sodium deficiency affects the body's ability to retain fluid, which leads to decreased body weight.

Unlike humans where the salt concentration decreases at large sweating, the salt content of horse sweat is constant. In a horse the salt concentration in the blood does not change significantly while sweating and because of that hard working horses cannot always feel their need of salt. A salt lick is not a sufficient source of salt for high-performance horses that may need as much as 200 g of salt per day. The fastest way of restoring a horse's salt balance is to give physiological saline solution (approximately 9 g of salt per litre of water).

There are large quantities of different electrolytes for horses on the market. Most of these does not contain enough salt (NaCl), and therefore does not give the desired effect, they are also often very expensive. The easiest way to satisfy the horse need of salt is to mix salt into the feed.

Feeding Salt

All horses should always have free access to salt lick. One salt lick in the stable and one in the field is an easy and practical way to ensure that the horse gets its basic needs of salt satisfied. Salt licks must be supplemented with additional salt to working horses.

An extra yield of salt should be given to horses on the days that they have been worked up to a sweat. A moderate yield is 20-40 g (1-2 tbsp) given mixed into the feed. Horses in more demanding training, like racehorses and 3-day-eventers, needs more salt. The salt can be given as saline solution or mixed in the feed.

Giving pure salt in the mouth of horses is not recommended since too strong concentrations of salt in the mouth can affect the hormone systems that regulate fluid balance.