In addition to providing honest advice, we at AskHELTIE believe it's important to have a wealth of information available for horse owners. This way, you can expand your knowledge and help your horse to the best of your ability. Together, we ensure that horses come a little closer to nature.
Electrolytes
Minerals
What electrolytes are most natural for your horse?
It's hot and that means horses lose a lot of salts and minerals through their sweat. To replenish these electrolytes, you can use different types of supplements. Which electrolytes are the most natural and when does your horse need them?. Electrolytes are important for the functioning of the horse's body. These substances help the body with nerve and muscle function, acid-base balance (pH), and fluid balance. Which electrolytes? The main electrolytes lost when sweating are: calcium, magnesium, chloride, sodium, and potassium. Calcium helps muscle contraction, while magnesium helps the muscles relax. Magnesium also plays a role in the nervous system and energy metabolism. Potassium regulates water uptake by organs, bones, and musc...
Electrolytes
Minerals
Feeding
Extra minerals for your horse: When is that necessary?
Minerals are essential building blocks for bones, muscle tissue, organs, and the nervous system. Therefore, your horse needs to be able to absorb enough minerals with its food and water. But minerals are complex, sometimes work together, and occasionally interfere with each other. How do you know if your horse is getting enough minerals or needs extra?. Minerals are important for the skeleton, nervous system, and digestion. Horses require a large number of minerals, sometimes in very small amounts. Minerals are usually divided into minerals and trace elements. Minerals should be given in grams per day, trace elements in milligrams. Some of the 'major' minerals include: calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, chloride, and potassium. Trace elements include: zinc, copper, iron, manganese, iodine, selenium, cobalt, molybdenum, and sulfur. Compound...
Electrolytes
Minerals
How do you support your horse in warm weather?
The warm months are approaching and some horses really thrive in that weather! They soak up the sun's warmth and truly enjoy it. But there are also horses that don't handle the heat as well, sweating and panting at the first ray of sunshine. How can you best support these horses during the warm periods?. Shade!! ALL horses need to have access to shade during the summer months. Whether your horse can handle the heat well or not, there should always be shade available. This can be provided by trees, a shelter, or by hanging a shade cloth. Horses should have the choice to escape the sun if they want to. A horse can also overheat or suffer from heatstroke (resulting in death). Always make sure your horse has a place to stand in the shade. Does your stable not provide this option? Then put your horse...
Electrolytes
Minerals
Feeding
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?. 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,...
Electrolytes
Skin
Minerals
Feeding
Why are electrolytes important for horses?
If you train in the summer months, your horse can sweat a lot. You often hear that you should give electrolytes. Why is that? What are electrolytes actually? When should you give them and what is the most absorbable form?. The official description of electrolytes in chemistry is as follows: they are ions of salts, acids, and bases that are in liquid form in the body. Sounds complicated, but what it comes down to is: they are soluble salts. The most important electrolytes for mammals are sodium, chlorine, and potassium. Sodium chloride is also known as table salt. In addition, magnesium and calcium are also important electrolytes for the functioning of the nervous system and muscles of both horses and humans. Elect...
Electrolytes
Minerals
Electrolytes and minerals: what do you give to your horse and when?
You often hear that your horse needs to get enough minerals in its diet. Also, electrolytes are a good idea during strenuous exercise or high temperatures. But what is the difference? Is there an overlap between these two things? And when do you actually give what?. The five most important minerals that horses need are: Sodium Chloride Potassium Magnesium Calcium In addition, there are a number of so-called 'trace elements', which horses need only in very small quantities. All these minerals are important for regulating fluid balance, muscle function, nervous system, and energy provision. Therefore, it is essential that a horse receives sufficient minerals in its diet every day. Preferably through a mineral pellet, without grains. What is the difference bet...
Electrolytes
Insulin resistance
Minerals
Sweet itch
Which electrolytes are ideal for sugar-sensitive horses?
Warm weather and more sweating, a typical summer for both humans and horses. Horses that are sensitive to sugars also sweat and lose electrolytes in that way. It is therefore important to provide horses with insulin resistance with extra sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and chloride. These minerals, known as electrolytes, are often only available with the addition of a form of sugar. In this blog, you can read how to provide electrolytes to sugar-sensitive horses without sugar.. What are electrolytes and what do they do? Electrolytes are necessary for the functioning of the nervous system, for smooth muscles, and for recovery after exercise. They prevent the "cramping" feeling and acidosis after training. Electrolytes are a number of minerals: Sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. Each of these minerals has its own function in the body. But in hot weather, a horse can lose about 10-15 liters of sweat and therefore a large amount of electrolytes....
Electrolytes
Insulin resistance
Minerals
Insulin resistant horse? Choose concentrated Bering Sea water as electrolytes!
Horses and ponies that are insulin resistant benefit from receiving as little sugars as possible in any form (carbohydrates, starch, dextrose, etc). However, these horses do need extra minerals, especially if they sweat a lot. But how do you manage this since most electrolytes contain some form of sugar? Choose concentrated Bering Sea water. 1 liter of concentrated Bering Sea water is equivalent to 100 liters of seawater. Seawater contains 20 to 28% table salt, which is filtered out. You can imagine that there are a huge amount of minerals in 100 liters of seawater.. Why are electrolytes necessary? Horses that sweat lose electrolytes (sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, and magnesium) through sweat in addition to fluids. These minerals are essential for the proper functioning of the nervous system, but also aid in recovery after exertion and promote muscle flexibility. An electrolyte deficiency can lead to issues like cramping. Horses can lose 10-15 liters of sweat in hot weather or during intense exercise, resulting in a loss of electrolytes. To ensure th...
Electrolytes
Minerals
Feeding
Is a salt lick sufficient for your horse in warm weather?
Most horses have access to a salt lick, but it is often difficult to assess whether these salt licks are being used. Some horses will consume the salt lick in one go, while others may take years to finish one. But what should you do in warm weather? Should you give electrolytes, or is it not necessary?. Salt lick is part of the basics In addition to good and sufficient roughage, you can see the salt lick as a basic element that every horse should have access to. The horse can then choose to use it as needed. Salt licks come in different types, the most famous being the Himalayan salt lick and the red salt licks (nowadays they are white). But there is also a liquid salt lick made from Bering Sea water) concentrate, as well as flavored salt licks. Salt licks have in common that they mainly contai...
Electrolytes
Giving electrolytes: better before or after training?
Now that the temperatures are rising again and both horses and riders are coming out of training sweating, replenishing mineral deficiencies with electrolytes may be wise. In which situations is it a good idea to supplement with electrolytes? And when and how is the best way to give electrolytes, before or after exertion?. A sweating horse loses a lot of salts and other minerals. On hot days, a horse can produce up to 10 to 15 liters of sweat per hour when working. Horse sweat is also very salty. While humans adapt to hot weather and excrete less salty sweat, horses continue to lose large amounts of minerals through their sweat. To replenish all those lost minerals, you can give (liquid) electrolytes to your horse. What do electrolytes do? Electrolytes include: sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, magnesium, phos...
Electrolytes
Electrolytes for horses: better absorbable thanks to vitamin B2
Summer is coming! On warm days, your horse sweats extra during training or on a trail ride. A sweating horse can lose a lot of salts and other minerals. To replenish those minerals, many people give electrolytes, often in liquid form. Research shows that these electrolytes are better absorbed in combination with vitamin B2. Electrolytes are ions of salts, acids, and bases that are in liquid form in the body. Horses (and humans) need these electrolytes for the proper functioning of the nervous system, to recover after exertion, and for muscle flexibility. Warm weather = 10 to 15 liters of sweat A horse can sweat as much as 10 to 15 liters per hour during heavy exercise and/or warm weather! This also means a significant loss of sodium, chloride, and potassium. Potassium regulates the water intake of organs, bones, an...