Y'know, after I read Angie's post about eating salt
as a kid and about horses eating chunks off the salt blocks, I was out doing
chores and puttered past the salt out in the gelding pasture. Now, I've
seen horses eat salt the way she described, but it's usually been salt deprived
horses that are seeing it for the first time in a long time. I got to
thinking when we had put out the salt to the 8 geldings, and it was around the
end of May or the first of June. We put out 50 lbs for those 8 head.
Four of them are being ridden--three to the level of being in competition.
(We are not burning up the turf, as all are "early days" yet in their endurance
career, so we are doing lots of LSD at home, one has 110 AERC miles this year,
one has 305 plus an LD, and one has 100 which were also somewhat fast, logging a
6th and a 2nd.) We do not add e-lytes to the feed, so this 50 lbs that has
been out there for four months is what they've had. Y'know, less than a
third of it is gone. And we had 100+ degree weather here for quite a chunk
of the summer this year. Do the math--that is about a quarter of an ounce
per horse per day that they've consumed. The ones going to rides have not
gotten lytes at the rides--but they do not come home feeling deprived.
What they DO have is common familial background
(which I think both makes them more metabolically efficient with the lytes in
their food as well as they are all built to have deep heart girths, good rib
spring, and lots of room for a BIG hindgut so they carry a good fiber, water,
and e-lyte reserve) and free choice mountain pasture hay in big bales,
24/7. The ones being ridden all EDPP just fine, although it took a couple
of them a ride or two to "catch on" that they'd better not pass up a water stop
or they'll get thirsty out there. I have to laugh to myself as I ride with
other folks, and my horse will be right there with his nose buried in the stream
or the water tank, guzzling his fill alongside theirs, and they say, WOW, look
at those electrolytes kick in! Huh? They think horses without them
won't drink? Whaddatheythink MINE are doing??
So Angie, if your horses need to have them because
of environment, genetics, whatever, then you need to give them. But mine
are telling me loud and clear that they don't need them, so I don't think that
the advice at large to EVERYBODY should be this constant clamor for more and
more lytes! Do what works for YOUR horse, but don't assume that is right
for ALL horses. Each horse is his own delicate balance, and as a
veterinarian myself, I am concerned and puzzled at the fact that ride vets seem
to be pushing lytes enmass to everybody, everywhere, regardless of the
individual and how well they may be doing without. Your first clue is
what your horse does--with regard to his attitude toward his salt at home, his
appetite, his energy levels, how well he drinks and pees, etc. FWIW, my
guy peed at EVERY stop last weekend--he does a lot better than I
do!
