All the literature tells us that loose minerals are better for our horses than hard salt/mineral blocks.
What is there available out there for loose minerals for equines? Basic (and affordable) livestock loose minerals tend not to have copper (sheep toxicity issue), which could be an issue. What are you using?
I feed a measured vitamin mineral supplement in the mash daily. Plus salt. There are many brands available.
I also supply a salt block.
I wouldn’t trust horses to dose themselves with either a mineral block or loose minerals fed free choice. They might eat them up out of boredom or avoid them. Only salt is really self regulating.
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I’ve just had a long back and forth with our local nutritionist, and have settled on Purina’s Equi-Eez. My horse is going to be getting it as a top dress at meals. Its recommended serving contains 113 mg of Cu.
I’m in Canada, so I don’t know what your local choices are, but this one seemed like the best choice in my area for my individual horse.
Good luck!
I feed loose minerals horse consums it on regular basis. Works just fine. Also put out loose white salt which he eats some days, then goes a few days not touching it. My horse won’t eat anything added to feed. So it’s loose minerals or nothing. I don’t feed any bagged feed anyway, forage only diet.
Dont believe if force feeding salt by adding it to grain.
My mare gets an ounce of salt morning and night in her mash and still powers through her Redmond Rock. A 7 lb Redmond Rock can go in 8 weeks. So I figure she’s taking in a pound a week.
Edited to say: my math was off. Closer to 2 lbs a week! Though at the moment she is going a bit slower on the Redmond Rock.
JB will know for sure, but I think you want a measured amount of most vitamins/minerals, not necessarily free choice. I would suggest feeding a measured amount of a vitamin/mineral supplement if your horses don’t get any processed feed/grain.
But you do want to provide loose iodized salt free choice as horse’s can’t get enough off of a block to meet their requirements.
Southern States makes an equine specific loose mineral called Equimin. I leave it in bucket in their stalls, along with that pink Himalayan salt on a rope. They like the plain salt better.
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I use ADM grostrong. I throw a palm’s worth on top of their food most days, but it comes loose and in blocks.
Many of the red/pink salts have iron in them. In my area, additional iron is not needed. I feed loose plain salt free choice and add it to their meal (aka force feed) only when a severe weather change is predicted (increase water intake to decrease chance of colic).
As for free choice minerals, all of the literature I’ve read is that horses can’t actually regulate their own intake/needs in this manner. They may not get enough or get too much. I prefer to feed a mineral/vitamin supplement as a top dress instead. I prefer California Trace but it is entirely up to your area and what your soil/hay analysis reports as lacking or abundant.
From the Merck Veterinary Manual: “Excessive intakes of certain minerals may be as harmful as deficiencies; therefore, mineral supplements should complement the composition of the basic ration.”
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My horse won’t touch Redmond rock salt won’t touch Himalayan salt either. Adding salt to feed and won’t eat it. Won’t touch a salt block either, has to be loose salt. Loose mineral has to be a certain brand or he won’t touch, think its ADM minerals.
Given that the only mineral a horse reliable seeks and self-regulates is salt, there isn’t anything else I’d leave up to the horse. That doesn’t mean you can’t put out a loose trace mineral product, but even then they are mostly salt with some trace minerals. There are some others which have much more in the way of macro and trace minerals other than salt, but I wouldn’t touch those.
So yes, use a product designed to be fed in specific quantities on a daily basis. SS also has another loose salt/trace mineral (not EquiMin) whose name is escaping me, which they like, and get into daily.
But for things like copper and zinc, the 2 most commonly needed trace minerals, I use polysaccharide copper and p-zinc, which can be had from HorseTech, Uckele, California Trace, and i’m sure other places. And they are force-fed, as they’d never know to seek them out, much less self-regulate intake.
Same goes for Vit E, and any other vitamin.
Use a loose salt/trace mineral product, which contains so little of the trace minerals it would be incredibly difficult for the horse to OD on them, and then force-feed any others at appropriate amounts.
