Electrolytes - what are they and why does your horse need them?

Electrolytes – for the ‘every horse’ 🐴

Today I wanted to share with you a little bit about Electrolytes, and why they are not just a supplement for hard working horses.

Electrolytes are required by EVERY horse ✅

I was lucky enough to attend a recent webinar on this subject hosted by Dr David Marlin 🙏🏻

Some of the information in this post has been sourced from the webinar content, as usual I will attempt to break down the information into bite sized pieces we can all understand and share with you the information that I think will be most useful to ‘everyday’ horse owners 👍🏻

❓What are Electrolytes?

“an electrolyte is a substance that when dissolved in water produces a solution that will conduct electricity”

❓What are the main Electrolytes?

▪️Sodium

▪️Potassium

▪️Calcium

▪️Magnesium

▪️Chloride

▪️Phosphorus

▪️Bicarbonate

❗️Salt is a combination of 2 of these electrolytes:

▪️Sodium

▪️Chloride

❓Why are Electrolytes important to our horses?

They help to:

▪️Regulate thirst

▪️Allow nerves to work

▪️Help muscles contract

▪️Bone and tooth formation

▪️Energy and chemical reactions

▪️Making DNA and RNA

▪️Making stomach acid

▪️Digestion

❓How can we make sure our horses are receiving an adequate balance of electrolytes?

❗️It’s important to note that domesticated horses do not regulate their salt intake, even with free access to salt blocks.

❗️A slight excess in salt in the diet is better than the diet being borderline or deficient in salt.

❗️Electrolytes have to be obtained by the diet, the horse’s body cannot make electrolytes.

Let’s keep this really simple:

▪️It is highly unlikely that your horse’s bucket feed ration contains enough sodium chloride (salt)

▪️This is because salt can reduce the shelf life and palatability of feed so feed makers tend not to include it in their products

▪️Therefore we need to add a baseline amount of salt to ALL horse’s daily feed ration (whether in work or not)

▪️A good baseline amount is a 25ml scoop of salt per day

▪️This can be ordinary table salt or a product such as Science Supplements Safe Salt (this is the product I choose to use as it is fat encapsulated to prevent possible worsening of any stomach ulcers that may be present in your horse)

▪️Your horse should be receiving all the other electrolytes required from their diet

▪️However Electrolytes are lost every day in urine, faeces and sweat

▪️The best approach to electrolyte management is to feed daily in a slight excess

▪️We should especially be adding electrolytes when the horse has been sweating

▪️This can be a product such as Science Supplements Electrolytes

▪️Increase electrolytes with workload and temperature

▪️Keep the baseline salt ration the same, there is no need to increase this

▪️If you would like your horse to take their electrolytes in water it is best to offer it to them immediately post exercise. This is because things taste less salty after exercise (to humans and horses) and so they are more likely to take the drink

🔆Please note I have no association with Science Supplements, I just like these particular products)🔆

I hope you find this post useful.

As an Equine Massage Therapist with a holistic (full body) approach I like to keep up to date as possible on all aspects of horse health, diet and management so that I can be in the best position to advise my clients ✔️

However for specific dietary advise please contact an independent nutritionist, my recommendation would be Clare MacLeod MSc RNutr Independent Equine Nutritionist

If you think your horse could benefit from an Equine Massage treatment please do get in touch to find out more or to book an appointment 📲