Balancer v Supplements

[clara81]

My friend was saying the other day she was going to put her pony on a balancer and I said I would if I could afford it but as I spend a fortune on conditioning feeds and hay replacers for the old mare I have to feed the two young healthy ponies as cheaply as poss . But then when I went home and worked out what supplements I buy in the summer it actually wouldn't cost any more to feed a cheaper balancer.

They currently get a handful of Fibregy with a general vit supplement (feed merchant's own, no idea what's in it), brewer's yeast and magnesium. They're out on the land now and in at night with dry haylage but in the summer they will be on a bare (and I mean bare) paddock with soaked hay.

Would it be worth changing to a balancer? I'm favouring Bailey's Lo-Cal as it contains yeast but does anyone have any other suggestions? Also if you feed a balancer can you actually tell any difference? Thanks

Oh! Should add it's a Sec A and an Exmoor in good condition doing practically no work.

[antares]

Hi

Balancers are frowned upon by some on here and some will tell you that they are of no use without knowing what is and isn't in your forage. I myself am toying with the idea of having a full analysis done on my grass to try and come up with a feeding solution for my SI boy.

However, currently I use a balancer and in my opinion yes, I can definitely see the results. I stopped feeding a balancer in the autumn as I ran out and thought it probably wasn't doing much anyway but I can tell you that my horses coat suffered, he had lots of dry skin areas and some flaky skin along with a very flat and non shiny coat. So I started feeding it again the week before Christmas and I am already seeing improvements.

I use baileys lo cal or top spec lite balancer depending on which feed merchant I get to

[companymagic]

I used to feed both mine Bailey Lo Cal, and to be honest didn't really see a difference, and then Ailsa my highland stopped eating it so I ended up throwing away most of it...

I now a Feedmark supplement which she will eat both ponies have lovely shiny coats and are doing well on it. I don't feed anything else other than Hay and a handful of low cal chaff to mix it with.

It's simple and cheaper.

[specialized]

Main difference between balancers and supplements is the protein levels of balancers, especially when feeding natives - balancers are basically supplements and probiotics bound in to pellets with some sort of feed substance, for instance lo cal has 16% protein and contains molasses amongst other things and does not state sugar content on the analysis but states 'low starch' at 10%.

[clara81]

Hmmm, it was the protein that got me thinking really. They've both got good feet but the Exmoor has got sweet itch (shockingly), hence the brewers yeast, so I was thinking maybe she needs more protein to heal all her wounds etc. She has got flakey skin at the moment but she always does at this time of year when her wounds have fully healed and the dead skin is coming away.

The Sec A is ok but I never feel her coat looks as good as it could, but then she's chestnut.

I once won a bag of Blue Chip Lami Lite and fed it to a mare I was preparing for the sales and she looked ACE but I bought a bag after that for my chestnut and it didn't really make any difference so I stopped getting it. The difference it made wasn't worth the money but Lo Cal is nearly half the price.

[jen1]

What the analysis has shown me is that I can use the straight feeds that I shunned many years ago , but I can do it with a little knowlage now, I use bran to counteract the high calcium, and actually its a good way of of keeping weight on the skinnies and oldies, oats too, speedy beet is the most modern thing I feed apart from mag ox and seaweed, linseed, so plain feeds just balanced to my hay etc, there all looking great, and its so much cheaper

[misty]

We have three horses, 34/5 years old Anglo Arab, 18 year old quarter horse, 12 year old Arab. The two girls are fed handful of basic mix, ready grass and unmollassed sugarbeet twice a day and hay. Old boy is fed that plus baileys no 1, crushed oats and bute. They are all really well and the qh, being chestnut has a lovely shiny coat. At the moment they are out off and on depending on the weather and what we are doing. I do worry about these balancers and supplements. The girls can hack out for 2/3 hours no probs.

[clara81]

The thing is my two (forgetting the old lady) don't need any hard feed at all. Basically it's either diet chop with 3 different supplements or diet chop with a balancer. The brewers yeast, magnesium and vit supplement cost about £25 which is the same as Lo Cal but will they get more out of a balancer or is it just a gimmick?

[DebbieR]

At Springfield, we've had our horses' rations devised by one of the country's leading independent nutritionists.

Ours are on Optigro balancer (which is still under £20 a bag I believe) at the recommended rate and linseed oil. In Winter they also get Speedibeet.

I've fed other things, including more expensive balancers, in the past but Duchess has never had such a fantastic coat & good strong feet as she has now.

Have a look at Zoe's website if you're interested:

www.horsefeeding.info/

[mags]

As was said above, a balancer is essentially a pelleted vit&min supplement with some protein added. At the recommended fed amount, there's not enough protein in the balancer to make a difference to the overall protein amount in the diet. The forage will provide most of that, and if your horse doesn't have a high requirement (good doers, not in work), that should be enough. What the balancer does add is a small amount of essential amino acids. This is about the quality of the protein. If your forage is good quality, you probably won't need the extra amino acids. Otherwise, the extra amino acids might indeed be beneficial. Without the essential amino acids, the horse can't use the rest of the protein that he eats. It's up to you to decide whether this added benefit is worth shelling out for a balancer vs. using the vit&min supplement. I'd also check the labels on both to compare what levels of copper, zinc and selenium are included. These are often low in forage, and one or the other might have higher levels per recommended dose. Your vit&min supplement might even contain some lysine and/or methionine (which are those essential amino acids), in which case it delivers the same as a balancer.
The other advantage of a balancer is that most horses will eat it straight, without added feed. You could save money on not feeding any chaff/base feed to your good doers.

As for your oldie, if you feed lots of bucket feed anyway, you may well be covering the vit, min and protein requirements already. Most compound feeds (i.e. conditioning mixes, "complete" feeds) are formulated to provide minimum amounts of vits and mins if fed at the recommended amount. Often, leisure horses aren't fed anything close to those recommended amounts, but if your oldie lives off it, then you may. If you are feeding "straights" (sugar beet, plain chaffs), then you'd want to add something for vits and mins.

I feed a vit&min mix based on my forage analysis (similar to Pro Balance+) and add some lysine and yea-sacc (both can be bought cheap by the kilo). This mix costs me about £10 per month per horse. Add a bag of alfalfa pellets every 2-3 months as a base feed, and it's a pretty cheap way to cover the bases. My senior mare also gets a lot of bucket feed in winter. I like the Spillers Layoff cubes plus a chaff (have tried various). The layoff cubes are almost identical to the Spillers high fibre cubes, but have yeast added an come in 25kg (instead of 20kg) bags, which makes them more economical than the high fibre cubes.

[clara81]

Thanks for that I think my forage is good quality. I'm not sure what levels of anything are in the vit supplement I feed cos the feed place make their own and it doesn't have a label. It's oily and smells of fenugreek and when I stopped feeding it their manes went course so I went back to it Not very scientific! The old mare gets Bailey's conditioning cubes at the recommended rate plus 1.5kg fast fibre, sugar beet and grass nuts as hay replacer so should be covered. What made me wonder really was that she was at death's door a few months ago and now she looks better than the other two (although she is rugged) and I put it down to being fed "properly".

I'll check out the horsefeeding website thanks!

[usst8s]

My good doers are fed a balancer from the Pure Feed Company. They have been on it for over a year now and are looking better than they have ever looked. Their coats have drastically improved and so have their feet, I am so pleased with it I wouldn't dream of feeding anything else. I order from their website and it is delivered straight to my door usually within 48 hours.

[shan]

I feed a balancer and it's made a massive difference to her coat, lovely & shiny (through the mud, lol!). Previously I was feeding nuts & alfa-a, seaweed, salt, mag ox & linseed oil.
I don't think they're the be-all & end-all of feeding but I'm happy seeing a healthy reflection in what I feed, although I do also supplement with mag ox, and seaweed at the mo. Apart from that I have rock salt & mineral licks so she can take what she needs

[sundance]

I feed Saracen Stam 30 balancer, less than £20 a bag. It is safe to feed to my horse with PSSM so starch levels very low. They either have it on it's own or mixed with simple systems unmollassed sugar beet and sometimes some grass nuts. All look really well, and it works out much cheaper than buying lots of supplements. Three of the four are barefoot and ages are from 4 to 25. Top line on all of them has improved and I used to feed a lot of alfalfa which they no longer need.

[clara81]

Thanks will look into that.