My guy has a mineral salt hanging in his stall but as we enter summer, I am wondering if I need to add more. He gets zinc/copper. I have Nu Salt (half sodium, half potassium) and No Salt (all potassium) I could add. Could add tums for calcium and that might buffer the added salt on the tummy. Anyone else do this ? Do you give it daily ? If he has a salt block, do I need to add salt? We event and heavy sweating is often confined to the weekends.
My mare loves her salt. She gets an ounce in her mash year around, and has a Himalayan or Redmond block she loves. If I am worried she isn’t drinking enough in winter I give her warm water with salt and molasses which she will chug down, since she doesn’t love the packaged electrolyte flavors. Also way cheaper though less convenient for travel
Electrolytes are sugar and salt in water for faster recovery after exertion, given as needed.
I would consider the mineral supementation as a separate question. Have a look at the numbers in your total feed and if needed add a vitamin mineral supplement, a ration balancer, or specific minerals.
You want these fed every day whereas the electrolytes are as needed.
So don’t try to combine the two.
Just add some salt to her feed. They do usually need more than they can get from a block (mine have both). But no need to waste money on “special” salt, most of which come with sugar, which you don’t want.
Horses, like humans, generally just pee out any extra electrolytes you give, the critical part is simply keeping them drinking well.
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I have mixed things at home before – I’m sure we have an old thread here involving Tums and Lite Salt – but I also like Summer Games which doesn’t have a lot of sugar:
I use the ground red salt from Redmond (the same folks who make the raw “rocks”). Here is the mineral analysis: http://www.redmondequine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RedmondRockAnalysis.pdf
Put loose plain white salt in the stall. During heavy use (sweating) it’s a good idea to add 1-2tsp salt daily, unless you know they consume quite enough on their own. Blocks are made for rough tongues and most horses won’t get enough salt (or any) with blocks.
No need to get fancy 
The only time you really need to force-feed electrolytes is during prolonged work, with the dosage dependent on the work and the temps. A good endurance rider can talk to you about that. But mostly? Not needed.
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