Major Minerals: A Balancing Act
MAJOR MINERALS: A BALANCING ACT By Susan Kauffmann With special thanks to Dr. Eleanor Kellon Most horse owners are aware that minerals are an important part of a horse’s diet. Some of us try to address this with mineralized salt blocks, supplements or “balanced” feeds, while others believe that a horse will get all the minerals it needs from pasture and/or good quality hay. Who is right? Well, like everything else in the horse world, it depends on who you talk to. The gold standard for the mineral requirements of horses has long been the National Research Council guidelines, but some researchers and equine nutritionists now feel that these guidelines, published in 1989, are out of date and in need of adjustment. Some recommend feeding as much as two times the NRC requirements or even more, yet many prefer to stick with the current recommendations, pointing out that there...