Do horses always know how much salt is enough

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I don’t have anywhere to hang salt licks in my field and they dissolve anyway so my horses only have salt licks in their stables. This week is the first time they’ve been in this winter and one of my ponies has gone crazy for her salt. There’s a very visible section gone. Do horses always know how much they need? Will she over do it?
 
Ah, I feed two 15 ml spoons of salt twice a day for a 650kg cob, but it will be rather less for a tiddler. Hopefully someone with knowledge of feeding ponies will be along in a bit. As a rough guess, I should think that 5ml salt twice daily would be ample for an 11hh.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Ah, I feed two 15 ml spoons of salt twice a day for a 650kg cob, but it will be rather less for a tiddler. Hopefully someone with knowledge of feeding ponies will be along in a bit. As a rough guess, I should think that 5ml salt twice daily would be ample for an 11hh.
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thank you! Let’s see who comes along!!
 
They don't self regulate and their tongues arent designed to get the required amount from a lick even if they licked all day.

The best option is to add salt to a feed daily. A tablespoon daily is the general rule of thumb but that's subject to change depending on temperatures and level of work.

I dont know what the daily recommendation for a 11hh would be but if you google you'll find loads of helpful websites
 
I wonder if the horse is biting chunks off the salt lick just for the pleasure of biting and crunching something hard...

I noticed a few years ago that that the horses up at the riding school were picking up chunks of ice from frozen puddles in the arena and crunching them. I doubt that it was because of the flavour (they don't try to drink from puddles through the rest of the year). I really think that horses enjoy the texture and the effort of making their jaw muscles work a bit more.
 
Keith_Beef said:
I wonder if the horse is biting chunks off the salt lick just for the pleasure of biting and crunching something hard...

I noticed a few years ago that that the horses up at the riding school were picking up chunks of ice from frozen puddles in the arena and crunching them. I doubt that it was because of the flavour (they don't try to drink from puddles through the rest of the year). I really think that horses enjoy the texture and the effort of making their jaw muscles work a bit more.
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That’s an interesting thought. I will keep an eye out
 
I have an old welsh mare who uses the lick a lot. She seems healthy and happy so I don’t worry too much. She’d probably like to take chunks out of it but has no front teeth so can’t.
 
Goldenstar said:
Do you have the pony on a diet ?
Fatty uses his lick more when he’s on forage restricted .
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Funny you say that. She’s been struggling with her teeth (vets been but just found a hay clump ten mins ago and getting frustrated with her hay net more so maybe she’s using it more because of that? Going to have to contact the vet again I reckon
 
Mine dont regulate. After reading about salt licks being inadequate, i bought a large bag of fine salt and dumped a huge pile in the corner of their shared barn to help themselves. Within the week it’s gone between 2 horses. Around 6 handfuls gone.
60 tablespoons....seems like high intake. Their stools become loose.

So really a salt lick is good to stop them overdoing it!...but bear in mind it normally wont enable them to get enough, especially if ridden daily, and should be topped up in feed.
 
My horse is 41 and had his one and only bout of colic few months back, my vet said to make sure I add salt to his feeds, couple of tablespoons a day, mine has 5 feeds so I split it, just normal table salt. Mine won't touch any licks

Search Dr David Marlin on facebook, google he has very good advice on this
 
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