Salt: A Key Nutrient

Let’s learn about salt! This is a critical thing for all owners to be aware of.

Why do we add salt?

First, don’t we feed salt to get horses to drink water? 

Yes, that is a true statement.

Salt will cause horses to be thirsty and drink more water which helps keep them hydrated in hot weather. As much as we love that, getting horses to drink more is not the primary reason we want to add salt to the diet.  We feed salt to help the horse with many basic functions for good health. 

What is salt? 

Salt =sodium & chloride.  Electrolytes are a little bit different. They do contain salt, but they also have potassium, magnesium, and other minerals. 

Functions of Sodium and Chloride:
The body uses sodium to control blood pressure and blood volume. Sodium also helps muscles and nerves function properly and maintain the horse's fluid body balance. Chloride helps maintain the body's acid and base balance as well. Chloride is a key component of digestive juices. It helps the stomach produce hydrochloric acid, which helps break down food. If you do not have enough chloride in the diet, you may not have enough hydrochloric acid (HCl). Isn't hydrochloric acid “bad"?  Well, potentially, it is thought that hydrochloric acid is thought to splash onto the side of the horse's stomach and can cause ulcers in some cases. However, hydrochloric acid is a critical part of the digestive process.  Hydrochloric acid breaks down proteins in the stomach to help start this process. If you don't have enough hydrochloric acid, are you really breaking down proteins correctly? Maybe, maybe not. It is thought that a chloride deficiency could potentially affect the breakdown of amino acids and therefore assembly into proteins in the horse's body. This is a very important topic and it is an often overlooked aspect of chloride. Chloride helps stimulate nerve and muscle cells. It helps red blood cells exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide in the lungs and other parts of the horse's body.  

Doesn’t the horse get salt from the diet? 

Hay, grass, fiber mixes, and commercial feeds do not contain sodium and chloride, especially at the levels that we need for the horse's diet. That's right, you have to add salt to 99 percent of horses' diets.Salt must be added to every horses’ diet every day. 

Why don't feeds contain sodium and chloride?

If it's just table salt, why don't companies add it?  That's a great question.  Potentially, it could make the food taste salty. Some products are starting to have more sodium and chloride added. Just because it's on the label does not mean it's at a robust enough amount to meet the needs. 

How much salt does a horse even need?   

The National Research Council (NRC) tells us how much we need to add to the horse. This is based on the weight of the horse. We give one tablespoon for every 500 pounds of total body weight. a thousand pound horse will need about two tablespoons of salt per day. That is roughly 35 grams of salt. If you have a particularly large horse that is, for example, 1500 pounds you can give 3 Tb.

What kind of salt do I need?

Do I need the fancy red Himalayan salt? Do I need the fancy stuff from the Sherpas in the mountains?  No, not really. The good news is that you can likely save a lot of money by using plain table salt. You can go to the grocery store, the dollar store. Brands don't really honestly matter that much, as long as it's sodium and chloride with a reputable company. That's all we need. Do you need iodized table salt? Not really, but generally horses are a tad bit iodine deficient, so it's not a bad idea to use iodine, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get it.  Just make sure if you use iodine they do not have any underlying health issues.  

Do you really want to use the fancy Himalayan salt?

I would say if that's the only kind of salt your horse will consume, if they don't like the taste of table salt, go ahead and use the Himalayan salt. It's totally fine, but definitely give table salt a try first.

Do you want to have the red salt?

If that's the only salt your horse will eat then it’s totally fine. Many horses do not like the taste of the red salt.

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