A HORSE OWNER'S GUIDE TO USING SALT AND LICKS:

I treated my horses to a new paddock lick this week, which I bought in a large plastic tub from my local farm store. I'm aware of the failure of mineral uptake by these licks so I had planned to use it purely as a boredom buster for my horses!

And although this big rectangular plastic housed lick claimed to last for months, my white faced big fella, Otto, horrified me when he got through it in just 3 hours!

Just look at that big brown stain on his face too-lol:) and that innocent expression that says-who me?-lol

Seriously though, there is a real threat to health here due to these, as I have just run a glucose test on him and it's absolutely scary sky high......so I would seriously advise against using these, and I certainly will not be bothering every again as this has posed a serious health risk to my horse.

And I could kick myself as I know better.....

So I thought I would do a little article here to help others with this......

LICKS: We advise that if you want to give a lick, to use a plain Himalayan salt lick, but please bear in mind that your horse will not get enough salt from using these....and you are basically putting it out as a boredom breaker only.

HOW MUCH TO USE: Therefore I would highly recommend giving a spoonful of salt every day to your horse's feed, again in the form of pure Himalayan salt....and advise not to use any other types of salts as they have generally been processed to death, which eliminate all necessary nutritional benefits

DANGERS : Like with all mammals, salt used in excess is as dangerous to horses, as it is to us, as it puts up our blood pressure amongst causes many other potential health risks. Raised blood pressure (hypertension) is the major factor which causes strokes, heart failure and heart attacks. There is also increasing evidence of a link between high salt intake and stomach cancer, osteoporosis, obesity, kidney stones, kidney disease and vascular dementia and water retention so please take care not to give too much

For more info on how to feed a more natural diet for your horse please see this link: https://www.naturalhorse.co.nz/recommended-diet