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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 455
 
| Adding salt and mineral to feed vs. feeding it free choice, what do you do and why? What brands do you prefer of either?
I have always just had generic mineral and salt blocks out free choice for my horses, but have been trying to research adding it to feed, at least during the winter months. I am not coming up with much info. If you add it to their feed will they leave behind what they don't "need"? Or can you over do it feeding it to them? I went to Tractor Supply and looked at the labels of some of their loose minerals and didn't find helpful instruction as to how much to feed a horse. These were general purpose livestock minerals, so perhaps I should be looking elsewhere for equine mineral and salt.
Any info would be appreciated! Hard to teach this old dog new tricks when it comes to switching up my horse care routine! I am picky! I do believe my program could use a little tweaking this year, though. This is where I am going to start. |
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Forever Tan
Posts: 2925
 
Location: Wisconsin | Equipride all the way....I"m a firm believer after 2 mos of use on all 3 of mine! A good all around vitamin/mineral supplement |
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  Keeper of the King Snake
Posts: 7622
Location: Dubach, LA | Mine won't eat what they don't need. In fact, I have two that won't eat what they do need. |
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 The Color Specialist
Posts: 7530
Location: Washington. (The DRY side.) | Over doing either one will likely cause them to not eat their grain. Mine have loose salt and minerals available free choice. They DO eat them. Sometimes more than others. I can't bring myself to "force feed" salt! |
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 Ms. Marine
Posts: 4642
Location: Texas | Free choice. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 747
| We don't feed any in their grain. My one gelding is picky enough when it comes to his grain, he always smells it before eating it. If you add anything to it, he won't tough it. All of my horses have Redmond Rocks, and they just love them, and so do I! They aren't like your traditional salt licks. They don't draw any moisture, and they have a lot more trace minerals in them! |
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Expert
Posts: 1695
Location: Willows, CA | Burn n' Turn - 2014-10-13 10:21 PM
We don't feed any in their grain. My one gelding is picky enough when it comes to his grain, he always smells it before eating it. If you add anything to it, he won't tough it. All of my horses have Redmond Rocks, and they just love them, and so do I! They aren't like your traditional salt licks. They don't draw any moisture, and they have a lot more trace minerals in them!
I feed the Redmond Rock also. Since it is about 8 1/2% mineral other than salt, my horses seem to be a little more consistent about eating it. I like it enough that when I formulated our Non-GMO dog food I used it in the formulation. It is the only dog food made that uses Redmond salt. I have seen high stress horses in high heat and humidity conditions eat it when they would not eat from commercial salt blocks. |
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Expert
Posts: 1314
Location: North Central Iowa Land of white frozen grass | I have a horse mineral and salt mixed into my feed mixture that my local feed store makes for me. I also have it free choice for them. |
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 Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | JMO & experience, yes you can over do it. I had a horse that I added salt to his grain because he wasn't drinking enough. He still didn't drink any more and he wound up being dehydrated on account of it. I'd rather feed free choice. The only time I add it to the feed is if it's hot & we have a race but even then I wet their feed down until it's soupy to make sure they get some liquid in their gut. |
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