What Can You Do If Your Horse Is Lacking Minerals?

Once you've determined, through forage and feed analysis or veterinary examination and testing, that your horse's diet is mineral-deficient, you can easily supplement those nutrients. The hard part is achieving the optimum dietary balance for your particular horse and her daily activity level. Feeding excessive amounts of any mineral won't do the job better, it will have a detrimental effect on your horse's health.

  1. Which Minerals are Important?

    • According to Feeding and Care of the Horse, there are 14 minerals horse owners need to make sure are balanced in their horse's diet. These include macro or major minerals calcium, chloride, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and sulfur for skeletal, muscle and nerve health. The micro or trace group includes copper, cobalt, iodine, iron, manganese, selenium and zinc. They are used in biological body reactions like vitamin synthesis and enzyme activities.

    Commercial Feed

    • Certain levels of macro and micro minerals are already provided in commercial feed. Good quality forage will supply additional minerals. The benefit to offering commercial horse feed is you can read the tag on the feed bag and know exactly what amount of a particular mineral is provided in each portion.

    Free-Choice Salt

    • Providing your horse is not on a sodium-controlled diet, you can offer free-choice salt. Free-choice salt is a good way to supplement iodine, chloride and sodium levels. You can buy salt blocks containing iodine, zinc, selenium, copper and manganese. Read the tag to find out what amounts are included.

    Free-Choice Minerals

    • Mineral supplements are another good way of adding missing minerals to your horse's menu. They come in many forms and formulas, with differing mineral levels. Offering free-choice minerals isn't a common horse practice, but it can help supply the needs that you can't meet with feed alone. Horse consumption of free-choice minerals depends on the form in which it is offered, either block or loose; taste, and location of the mineral. It can be helpful to place the mineral in an area where horses spend most of their time to encourage greater intake. You might have to add something to enhance the flavor of the loose mineral, such as salt or dried molasses.

    Additional Ideas

    • Dr. Bob Coleman, in a report presented at the 2003 Alberta Horse Breeders and Owners Conference, offered additional strategies for feeding free-choice minerals. He suggested keeping the loose free-choice mineral fresh and to calculate 45 to 60 grams of mineral per horse per day. Enough mineral should be put out to last four days. Coleman encouraged owners to be flexible and try different additives and to monitor how much mineral is being consumed.