Eating earth

[Gilbey]

My lovely horses are all fed Blue Chip and various other things and given 5* treatment all like to lick soil when they can. What are they deficient in please? Whatever it is I will buy it for them, just need to find out!

 

[Rose Folly]

Unless they're all doing it compulsively, let them be. There are times when Nature is better than Blue Chip. Our horses eat the bark of our willow trees whenever they're poorly (aspirin) and they quite like licking the boulders in part of the pasture - white lias and limestone - and they haven't dropped dead yet.

 

[katherine1975]

When my horses were eating the earth I fed them Naf Pink Powder and they stopped eating it. Hope this helps.

 

[tallyho!]

Blue chip has lots of vits and mins but is standard for every horse disregarding what is already in the feed/grass they eat. So, even though may be sufficient for some things, it may be lacking in others, simply because Blue Chip assume horses get vits & mins from grass as so not to overdose.

Overdosing is a huge problem - vit a for example can accumulate and make the liver poor. If too much copper, then this inhibits absorption of other things. There's quite a lot to it actually but that's a whole other science!

So, hard to say about your soil but maybe it is rich in a mineral they are not getting enough of - e.g. magnesium, iron?

They obviously need it so let them be

 

[Gilbey]

Thanks guys! They all get Pink Powders too along with cortaflex, and Think Fly. It sounds like they are just doing it for a need for something not provided. So as long as its OK I wont worry about it.