Cant get mustang yearling to stop eating dirt!

I know you say "nutrition is addressed" but what does that mean?  What is he eating?  What type of hay? Supplements?  Minerals - are you just offering a mineral block or are you adding a loose mineral to his feed?  Sometimes a loose horse mineral added right to his feed is more complete than the mineral blocks.  Usually if a horse is eating dirt it means *something* is missing out of the diet that the horse needs.  Whatever it is - you may think you are adding it, but his years on the range may have left his diet lacking and he is still trying to play catch-up. 

If this was my horse I would get him on a good loose horse mineral and probiotics both sprinkled on some food (with a mustang - hay pellets would be what I use as the food).  I would also get a vet out to pull some blood and see what that told me.  Basic blood work usually isn't too expensive but it can sometimes be very revealing.  I would be curious about his selenium levels as well - selenium is one of things that too little or too much can be dangerous so it should be tested before supplementing with it.

Have you tried tossing hay out when he is in turn-out to see if you can distract him with it?

When he originally started eating the dirt, I posted on a horse forum, and someone helped me with getting him a good diet. He gets 1 flake of alfalfa in the am and one in the pm. the flakes weight about 8-9 lbs
 
I did put out a mineral block for him. He is getting  Ace Hi mare and foal. On top of the mare and foal he is getting probios probiotic supplement.  I am giving him some corn oil, when I got him he was a little underweight.  I just did a week of sand clear on him because I was worried. Does adding oil to his diet help move sand at all?
 
I know loose minerals are better than a block but I dont know were to get them, or I would get them for him. so it may be posable that his deficiancy (if thats what it is) still hasent resolved itself?

How old is he?

I don't know - but my mustang would have foundered if I had him on alfalfa hay, mare & foal, and oil.  That seems really rich for a mustang.  I fed my mustang plain local grass hay, timothy hay pellet (or beet pulp when I couldn't get the pellets) with loose mineral added to the top. 

You should be able to get loose horse mineral at any feed store.  Just ask them.  We are in the middle of no where but all of our feed stores carry it.

Where are you located?  Good idea using Sand Clear.  (generic metamucil is the same stuff but cheaper)  I'm for free choice hay and I've been told mixed grass is sometimes better.  Around here you do NOT want to feed alfalfa cuz it's just not good.  Bermuda is what's grown best around here.

Forgot to say TSC has loose minerals.  He may eat an alarming amount at first but as soon as his mineral levels even out, he'll slow down, from what I've been told.  I hope you figure it out!  Glad you adopted him!

Every large feed manufacturer will make a loose vitamin/mineral blend.  Purina and Manna Pro both make a 12-12.  If you buy feed from a local mill, they will have something because they will add it to the bagged feed.  Often the local stuff is more ideal because it often addresses the nutritional shortcomings in that area.
 
  He's a young growing horse that's a little underweight.  When I'm feeding a young horse, I want everything he puts in his mouth to have a purpose.  The fat isn't doing that.  It's giving him calories but it's not giving him the "building blocks" (protein, CHO) to help him develop and do the catching up to his peers.   I feed alot of alfalfa but on a newly off the range mustang, I would be hesitant to feed that as the sole forage because he's never had anything nearly as rich.  I'd get him on grass hay with a little alfalfa for some extra Ca,&nbsprotein and as a little treat. 
 
  Think about the dirt eating a little differently.  He was taught from day one that her needs to eat constantly because tomorrow, it will probably be gone.  Maybe he's missing something in his diet but he could also just be going through the motions.  If you can't put out freechoice hay when he's turned out, spread a couple of flakes of grass hay around his pen forcing him to "graze".  Get him out of the stall.  Give him a playmate or an older mature gelding to keep his manners in check. 

I agree your horse is missing something in its diet.
 
I would hesitate to provide a bagged feed with set amounts of added minerals as not every horse has the same nutritional needs.  At this time, my mare receives free choice bermuda hay and any supplements are from Dynamite.  
 
I didn't find their products myself.  Over a 15 year period, my daughter slowly worked her way through different types of feeding programs until finding this particular product line.  It pays off to question companies about their products and then do further research.  If you contact a Dynamite dealer, don't let the initial price scare you as many of the supplements last for weeks or months.  The cost per horse per day is less than or equal to other supplements on the market that do not work as well. 
 
I have added a section of information I requested from a dealer concerning the difference between Dynamite minerals and others. 
 
I hope you are able to sort out what your horse needs.
 
On to the Minerals... [/H4] Most people (and perhaps even most supplement manufacturers) are under the impression that a mineral is a mineral, and that one form is as good as another. However, that simply isn?t the case. Without optimum mineral nutrition, dietary protein, fats, vitamins and carbohydrates cannot be utilized by the body. In spite of this, the majority of supplement manufacturers still utilize inorganic mineral salts in their formulas. Unfortunately, most minerals in their natural or salt state cannot be absorbed. The movement of minerals across the intestinal mucosa requires chelation with carrier proteins. Minerals exert most or all of their biological effects while in the chelated state.
 
[Chelation means to firmly bind a metal ion with an organic molecule (ligand) to form a ring structure. The resulting ring structure protects the mineral from entering into unwanted chemical reactions.] 
 
While the concept of chelation is simple, making a chelate that is biologically available is not.  In order to develop natural chelated minerals which are biologically available through chemically suspending an essential mineral between two or more amino acids, it truly needs to run through the plant kingdom (Mother Nature knows best). This is an important point to note: there are many companies on the market that claim to use chelated minerals, but often they have used chemical agents such as EDTA, or starch, to chelate their products. Examples of these ?wanna bes? are protienates, citrates, picolinates, malates and orates. Only minerals chelated to hydrolyzed protein are truly efficiently absorbed by the body, and even then there are other complex factors that enter into consideration, such as bond tension, bond structure, and molecular weight, in order to penetrate the body cell membranes as an intact chelate.
 
A chelate with a larger molecular weight must be broken down first, thus defeating the purpose of chelation. A large chelate upon breaking down often times will bind itself to another mineral of the opposite valence, forming a compound that's rendered useless by the body and passed along in the manure pile.  All of this is rather complex, but is crucial for proper nutrition, synergy, balance and optimum health. The chelated minerals are very easily absorbed with a minimum of effort on the part of the body or plant tissue. They are in the form that nature intended for us to have in our food.
  Note:  Some minerals in pure chelated form are too ?hot? for horses to handle and should be fed in conjunction with the pure chelates, as they act as a sort of ?Trojan Horse? and help in the uptake of the inorganic forms of the minerals.  Quality inorganics being carbonates, sulfates and oxides.