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Replenishing Minerals: Balancer, Electrolytes, or Mineral Supplement?

When it's hot, your horse loses a lot of salts and minerals through sweat. But how do you best replenish them? Aren't minerals also present in hay, grass, concentrate feed, and balancer pellets? Is an electrolyte supplement really necessary? What about horses that need to eat a low-sugar diet, for example, due to laminitis, sweet itch, or EMS?

Electrolytes

Minerals

Feeding

9 June '22 • 3 min reading time

Horses need a wide range of minerals to function properly. Some of these minerals are required in larger quantities (macro-elements), while others are needed in very small amounts (trace elements). Minerals cannot be stored as reserves in the horse's body for long periods. This means that these important substances must be supplied through food. Whether it is through grass, hay, concentrate feed, balancer pellets, or supplements.

What are the most important minerals?

The most important minerals, the macro-elements, are: Sodium, Chloride, Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium. When your horse sweats a lot or evaporates, you will need to replenish these minerals. Potassium is important for the water absorption in organs, bones, and muscles. Sodium regulates nerves and muscle contractions. Chloride aids in digestion. All three are important for the fluid balance in the horse's body and for regulating pH. Calcium is needed for muscle function, and magnesium is also important for this purpose. In short, calcium is responsible for muscle contraction and magnesium for muscle relaxation. Phosphorus and Sulfur are also important for a horse's proper functioning, bone growth, and fertility.

What are trace elements?

Animals only need very small amounts of trace elements. Trace elements include silicon, zinc, chromium, manganese, and copper. Trace elements may or may not be present in concentrate feed and balancers. Before supplementing these substances, you should pay attention: In some cases, an excess of trace elements can be toxic to horses. An example of this is selenium. It is a necessary element, but a dose eight times the requirement is toxic. Much Dutch hay is low in selenium, but only a good hay test will provide clarity. Selenium is usually not needed to be supplemented separately if your horse is already receiving a vitamin and mineral pellet (balancer).

The use of a mineral and vitamin pellet (balancer)

In addition to unlimited high-quality forage (preferably tested), it is important to daily provide your horse with the basic requirement of minerals and vitamins. This can be done with the help of a balancer. These vitamin and mineral pellets usually contain little or no sugar. Under normal circumstances, a balancer will replenish the daily mineral deficiencies.

What is the difference between minerals and electrolytes?

Minerals are inorganic elements. Often, minerals are found in compounds with chlorine, sulfur, and/or oxygen atoms, such as sodium chloride (table salt), manganese oxide, or magnesium sulfate. Electrolytes are dissolved, liquid minerals that are split into ions, allowing the solution or liquid to conduct electricity. In the horse world, the term 'electrolytes' mainly refers to the minerals that horses lack when they sweat heavily during exertion or heat. These are the aforementioned macro-elements Sodium, Chloride, Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium. You can easily replenish these with a liquid isotonic supplement, which often also contains some dextrose. A liquid electrolyte supplement is given on warm days and during heavy sweating due to training.

Low-sugar diet?

For horses that cannot have sugar, minerals from the Bering Sea can be an alternative to electrolytes. This way, you avoid the dextrose found in many other supplements while still providing the minerals needed when sweating heavily. Convenient!

Choose for themselves?

For all horses, you can offer minerals from the Bering Sea as an option in a water bucket, alongside regular drinking water. They can then choose what they need. Horses can usually determine this themselves. This way, they also replenish trace elements.

Conclusion: Minerals, Electrolytes, and Balancers

Minerals are not stored, so a horse must regularly obtain them through food. In any case, sodium, chloride, calcium, magnesium, and potassium can be replenished daily. There are also several trace elements of importance, most of which are present in most balancers, such as copper and zinc. The minerals in a supplement must be easily absorbable for your horse. On hot days and during strenuous work, an isotonic electrolyte supplement is advisable. You should give this two days beforehand up to shortly after the exertion (or heatwave). As an alternative, for sugar-sensitive horses, you can use liquid minerals from the Bering Sea.

Sources:

Rehrer, N.J. Fluid and electrolyte balance in ultra-endurance sport. 2001. Journal of Sports Medicine. Source

Maughan, R.J., J.B. Leiper, S.M. Shirreffs. 1997. Factors influencing the restoration of fluid and electrolyte balance after exercise in the heat. British Journal of Sports Medicine. Source

J. Diamant & K. Guggenheim. 1957. Electrolyte Metabolism in Pyridoxine, Riboflavin and Pantothenic Acid-Deficient Rats. American Journal of Physiology. Source

Effect of aevite and riboflavin on the electrolyte balance in the wall of the hepatic blood vessels in experimental toxic hepatitis. Farmakol Toksikol. 1986. Source

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