Advice on feed balancers for horse on 24/7 turnout

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Tash88

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My six year old WB x TB gelding is now turned out 24/7, and really enjoying it. He is being ridden five days a week but only staying in his stable one or two nights a week, generally at the weekend.

When he is stabled overnight (until last week) he has a tiny breakfast of 1/3 scoop of hi-fi, some sugar beet to wet it down and a few carrots. For dinner he has 1 scoop of hi-fi, 2/3 scoop of cool mix, 1/2 scoop of sugar beet and garlic. He isn't overweight at the moment but he is quite a good doer so I am going to reduce his feed. He isn't getting fed every day, only after he has been ridden.

I am thinking of cutting out this feed and just feeding him a balancer + garlic and fruit/vegetables, so that he isn't being 'fed' as such but is still getting everything he needs. I've never had a horse who's been able to live out in the summer before (I got this horse in November), and so I'm not quite sure what to do.

Any suggestions welcome, thanks.
 
You could give him a complete supplement designed for horses that are just on grass and hay. I use equimins advance complete but there are others on the market. If a good doer you may want to leave out veg such as carrots which are quite rich. It is fine to not feed extra at all. Ideally you would have a forage analysis done so you know what if anything he actually lacks.
 
My horse is the same as yours - 6yo WB pretty similar workload/routine etc,

He is living out whilst the weather is fabby :) He gets half a scoop of hifi or alfa A if he drops a bit and 2 mugs of Baileys Lo-cal balancer twice a day - he does VERY well on this
 
I spend a day recently compairing a lot off supplements and balancers and equimins advance complete is a very good one. I was however shocked at what little topspec and baileys lo cal had in them, you are paying for not a lot off goodness at all.
 
Equimins Advance is great.

There are also Equimins META Balance.
Pro Hoof
Pro Balance + (if you want to keep costs down)
ForagePlus Balancer.
 
The last 2 on your list, Oberon I have not heard of , can you say what they are and where you can gt them.
 
Pro Balance + is the budget version of Pro Hoof they have just brought out.

Forage Plus's balancer is from ForagePlus - it was launched a few months ago.
 
Thank you for the replies, it looks like my post has been helpful for others as well! I will check out the products that have been recommended. I think he still needs something as I brought him in to ride this morning and he was exhausted from staying out all the time, hopefully he will get a bit more energy as he gets used to not having proper sleep every night.
 
Make sure he gets at least 25g salt a day - more if sweating.

Horses run out of sodium and chloride pretty quickly when exercising and this can mean a loss of performance.

They're not like us, who have to be careful with our salt intake - season away ;)
 
Tash88 said:
Thank you for the replies, it looks like my post has been helpful for others as well! I will check out the products that have been recommended. I think he still needs something as I brought him in to ride this morning and he was exhausted from staying out all the time, hopefully he will get a bit more energy as he gets used to not having proper sleep every night.
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I love this reply, try creeping out at approx 5am and I bet you find him flat out in field, fast asleep, my two very old ponies stayed out for first time this year last night, they do have a barn to run into with wood chippings, but at 5am this morning, (birds woke me up) I went out to check on them, and there they were the wee pets, fast asleep in field. I think your horse is having you on, what would you rather do, stay in field or be ridden if you were a horse.:)
 
Hi, if u have grass in field I would keep up a feed that is high in fibre to.minimize any risk of lami. Stick.with ur hifi and speedie beat. Drop the mix and use a balancer like bsileys low cal or spillers light. X
 
Hey, i used Spillers Original Balancer for my TB when he was out on grass. He had a cup full of that with a cup of cool mix, some chaff and a little sugarbeet. He also had hay as there wasnt alot of grass in his field. The balancer really helped his overall condition, he looked amazing after a short amount of time and even though the balancer was expensive, it lasted a long time.
I also have him the odd bit of fruit and veg as a treat.
 
Be very careful on balancers. They love to promote no or lo calories with nothing but goodness. Load of crap. Had I listened to my feed company my horses would be eating "wonderful magic balancer", soaked hay, no grazing ever, mood problems, cycle problems, and in general a life of misery. Oh and expensive vet bills continuously.

Your horse should be fine on a vit and min supp mixed with speediebeet and his other supps.

Terri
 
Is this thread for real? A first horse 'able' to be out 24/7 and is exhausted from not going to bed? Arent horses meant to be outside eating grass?I cant think of anyhting worse than stabled horses in the summer.
Balancers- are they neccessary? Unless your horse is in hard work [ which these days is very few, say eventers ,showjumpers ] why would you rely on anything but grass and perhaps a feed after riding?
Feed companies sure have done their job well. But if you have good grazing - ie enough of it and not 'horse sick' , old grasses and herbs , not over rich in clover ,good soil ie not deficient in trace elements the horse should manage himself. Never bought a balancer .and unless horse ill for some reason, never would.
 
my horse had grass and hay and was fed umpteen times a day to try and get weight on him, he was in a reasonable amount of work. i decided to give him a balancer and suddenly turned into a lovely looking horse. He was a decent weight, had a great shine to his coat and it didnt fizz him up or make him any different apart from look a damn sight healthier. If i had left him with just hay/grass and a feed after riding, he would've been a hat rack. He was a TB after all.
 
I doubt your horse was exhausted, just happy and relaxed!

I feed Winergy Equilibrium Balancer, no sugar or cereals in it. Costs about £1.25 a day to feed, but you don't need anything else. I would be careful about too many apples and carrots as they are loaded with sugar.
 
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