Best salt lick?

Snowy Celandine

Snowy Celandine

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My youngsters have a Himalayan salt lick and a Red Rockies baby salt lick and they lick both from time to time but are not obsessed with either of them. One of my older horses, however, seems to want to crunch up her Himalayan salt lick and I've had to take it away from her because I'm concerned that she's getting too much salt now.

She and her Arab friend are on pretty bare pasture because I need to manage her weight (I supplement the Arab's*diet with hay and a bit of feed to keep her at the right weight) so I'm not sure if she's using the salt lick as a boredom breaker?

Any advice please on whether there's a better salt lick to try which won't prove so enticing? Or is there a better way of presenting a salt lick than on the bit of rope that it comes with which will make it less of a game?
 
I have a gelding who used to devour salt licks like a horse possessed so I started to do some reading up to see why. It appears that most horses are deficient in sodium by as much as 40% and should be fed salt in their feed at a rate of 10gms per 100kg of body weight. I had been feeding him salt but nowhere near enough and once I upped it to the correct amount he stopped licking the salt lick and now only uses it on the odd occasion.
 
It is unlikely they will get too much salt, they are not humans with the risk of damaging themselves with a high intake, if they crave it they normally need it, whenever I have one that spends a long time at a lick I give an increased amount in the feed for a few days and that normally reduces the licking as they become balanced, if you think it is purely boredom then feed salt and remove the lick altogether but do not withhold salt completely from one that may need it.
 
Thanks everyone :) All points taken on board. Off to the tack shop now so will get another salt lick and increase the salt in her feed from this evening. I've got a Jolly Ball in the minis' field so I might try putting that in the other paddock and see if she has a play with it, just in case it is boredom related.
 
I give them loose salt. They prefer it than licks. They eat a lot of it in winter. They've no interest in it when the summer grass comes along. I think once they have water I wouldn't worry about them eating a lot of it. It is necessary for the body and they would only eat a lot if their bodies needed it.
 
My horses have Himilaylan salt licks but especially in this weather I add electrolytes to their morning snack in the extreme hot weather we have been having I also give them Black salt .
Horses need a lot of salt in weather like this .
 
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