Horses need salt but please, NEVER put salt into their feed.
Salt is a mineral that helps hydration, it helps water get through to the cells of the body. But under certain stress conditions, salt can CAUSE dehydration and dehydration can cause death in extreme circumstances.
If your horse has salt WITHOUT drinking water and if they are ALREADY dehydrated, i.e. if they already do not have not enough water in the cells of their body, then the action of the salt is reversed and it can take water OUT OF THE CELLS instead of helping the body put water in.
So, if a horse was to eat salt in their food and then not drink afterwards, then they could dehydrate suddenly – and bad enough dehydration can cause death.
Whether a horse’ s dehydration got bad enough to be life threatening would depend on what was going on in their body at the time. Illness or the sweating heavy work of an endurance or long trail ride are the kinds of stresses that come to my mind easily.
Nature is wonderful, she already took this into account when she made salt – it makes you very thirsty if you don’t disguise it.
So… always ad lib your salt, allow them to help themselves to as little or as much as they want – that way they will get this life giving mineral without the risk of getting too much PLUS at the same time, it will make them thirsty enough to drink.
Or, if you have a performance horse that you think needs salt now – i.e. to help them in their recovery from that performance, then make a salt drink so that they get both salt and water at the same time.
The types of salt are another big issue
I don’t know about countries outside Australia, but we have a table salt here that is absolute crap and of no use to man or beast.
It has all the goodness processed out of it and is nothing but the chemical called sodium chloride. This kind of salt is bad for your health and raises blood pressure.
Commercial salt licks also have problems in my mind. They often mix them with molasses to get them to eat more than they otherwise would. Plus, they mix goodness knows what kind of salt with specific large doses of minerals that may or may not be needed, maybe or maybe not in those quantities.
Real and plain rock salt solves that problem.
For healthy salt, you want lumps of untreated salt dug straight from the ground and sold to you. The color and cloudiness are minerals that are useful to both you and your horse.
I leave a big lump of salt out in a feeder for the horses to have as much or as little as they like and the feeder is close by the water trough. I am not a fan of fine salt for horses.
Don’t worry if the salt melts a bit in the rain, because, providing the feeder will hold the salty water, they will just drink it when they need it instead.
