Rock salt or sea salt?

[chaps89]

Does it matter which you feed to a horse at all?
I know table salt/salt with anticaking agent in is advised to be avoided but if the other 2 are 100% natural rock salt or 100% natural sea salt does it make a difference which is fed?
Thanks.

 

[ester]

some people worry about the iron content in some rock salt.

personally I've just fed the table version, (and thoroughly appreciated the anti-caking agent the other day while trying to bash bits off the pure version in the laboratory bottle!)

 

[supsup]

It doesn't really matter. Table salt is about as pure as it gets, and the only "contaminant" in it is the anti-caking agent, which is pretty much safe. If you get "natural" mined rock salt, it'll contain all sorts of contaminants, and you won't know what they are. Some rock salt marketed to horse owners has been shown to contain arsenic. Admittedly in very tiny amounts that are probably going to be harmless, but you can't have it both ways: natural rock salt has low levels of contamination with all sorts - if those levels are low enough not to cause harm from the toxic ingredients, then they are also low enough not to do any particular good (in terms of providing needed micronutrients).
I prefer the plain table salt, because it's super cheap and I'd rather not contribute to the distruction of the Himalayas (of having to ship salt all the way from there to here).
In fact, I also like the 5km plain salt licks from Decathlon - cost less than £2.50 per 5kg, so much cheaper than most other licks.

 

[Pinkvboots]

I just use the bags of table salt from the supermarket it's only about £1.30 for a big bag.

 

[Leo Walker]

I just use the bags of table salt from the supermarket it's only about £1.30 for a big bag.

Me too. I worry about lots of stuff but anticaking agent is something I refuse to engage with!

 

[Goldenstar]

I give mine rock salt in the field and am well aware it may well have all sorts in it .
There’s no good reason not to feed table salt to horses.

 

[Casey76]

“Himalayan” rock salt from Pakistan is a bane to the environment, and that is without the undeclared contaminants.

It is possible to get table salt without anti caking agent, though it tends to be a bit ‘wetter’ than normal salt.

 

[chaps89]

Realised I never came back to this one, sorry.
Thanks, I don't know why I'd got it in my head anti caking agent is a bad thing :-/ Regular salt it is then, cheaper too.
Ironically enough I was buying rock salt as it comes in a cardboard box rather than the plastic tub the sea salt comes in, thinking of recycling. Didn't really think about the ethics behind rock salt. Oops.

 

[JFTDWS]

I use table salt in feeds. If they're not getting fed, they have access to rock salt in the field because they bite lumps from pure salt licks.