Electrolytes and the Performance Horse

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By Dr. Joe Pagan · January 11, 2013

Electrolytes are substances that play an important role in maintaining osmotic pressure, fluid balance, and nerve and muscle activity. These substances are important because without the proper electrolyte levels, performance horses are slowed by fatigue and muscle weakness.

In the exercising horse, sodium, potassium, chloride, and magnesium are lost in sweat and urine. Owners need to have some idea of the magnitude of loss of electrolytes during exercise before a feeding program can be developed to replace these losses. Since most of the electrolyte loss in the horse occurs through sweating, one method of calculating electrolyte requirements can be based on amounts of sweat loss. Body weight loss during exercise is a good way to estimate the amount of fluid lost, where 1 kg (2.2 lb) of body weight loss equals 1 liter of fluid...

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