Young Horse eatting odd things

[Rafter 7 Paint Horses]

When you say you have out salt/mineral blocks, do you mean you have out white salts blocks and mineral blocks, or the combination salt & mineral blocks?

If you have the combo blocks, try getting regular white salt blocks. If your filly isn't interested in the loose mineral, she may just want plain salt. Salt is in sand a lot of times. This might be why she is licking the sand so much.

We use white salt blocks, mineral blocks and loose minerals for our horses, so they have a choice of what they need.


Jean

 

[patandchickens]

If she's doing this in her paddock i.e. you cannot stop her from doing it, I would worry about sand colic along with others (plus you don't want it to become a hobby that carries over to the rest of her life). I have read that tests of the psyllium supplements showed they did *not* flush out sand, so I would not rely on that.

So if it were me and this is something she does in her paddock, I would take some of the most composted-down manure pile that I could dig out this time of year, and I would spread it thinly over the areas where the sand is. Not too thick, you should still be able to see a little bit of ice/snow here and there. If it is darkish loose partially composted stuff it will actually fairly quickly 'melt into' the surface of the ice so that it is stuck there to form a relatively nonslip surface. Really truly. And the worst she can get from nosing at the composted manure-and-bedding is possibly a few worm eggs, although this time of year, probably not so much even that.

This is what I do all around the barn instead of sand, just because sand seems to melt into the ice and disappear so rapidly, it really does work and I think it would totally take care of the sand-licking.

Of course you might also be wise to offer her the *choice* of salt supplements others have mentioned, but my personal guess is that she's just bored and/or creative in this particular instance

Good luck with her,

Pat

 

[lcountry]

I'm guessing that she's getting some sort of salt from the sand. I'd try a white salt block. My understanding is that the salt/mineral blocks won't necessarily give them the amount of salt that they might need.

Keep us posted on how she does.

 

[GwenFarms]

The mineral block has plenty of salt...it is almost all salt. The reason people are told to get the plain salt block is because there is generally not enough minerals in it to make a difference. If you feel a horse has a deficiency, or for some reason you're not feeding a good pellet (making your own grain mix...etc). If your feeding a good commercial pellet your minerals are covered anyway. This horse is just bored, wanting something to do. Anyone who has ever owned a young horse has seen the silly stuff they do. It doesn't sound as if she is taking in enough sand to cause sand colic, based on her owner's previous posts. Give her a jolly ball, or a dollar store ball..it won't last long, but its cheap to replace