All round supplement for a barefoot good doer?

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Jingleballs

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Cob has been on forage plus winter balancer for the last few months - doing ok on it - his feet look good and initially I thought I saw an improvement in his coat although he generally has a nice shiny coat, bright eyes etc so I'm not sure it was the supplement.

It's a bit £££ and more importantly, getting him to eat it is a bit hit and miss - he only gets a tiny feed so trying to hide it is tricky -you need to add a lot of sugarbeet to get him to eat it all and he'll often leave some of his dinner which is unlike him.

Anything else worth considering? I've used Kossolian blood salts during coat changes in the past and he did well on that and also used Equimins advanced completed - again no major results but he's not a horse that seems to need anything although when I first took his back shoes off I do think that maybe the forage + helped strengthen his hooves.

Thought it worth considering other options before just re ordering FP - especially as I don't think he's got any major deficiences?

I'd love to get the forage analyzed but as they move feels a few times a year I don't know if there will be much benefit?
 
Pro balance from progressive earth on eBay

Equine Answers 365

I feed the former to my tb with "issues"; horn quality is good but his actual feet have a lot of damage having been shod since 16mths until I got him aged 9. The latter is fed to my good doer with brilliant feet. His feet were shocking initially and he injured himself regularly by brushing but haven't looked back since pulling his shoes and no injuries (physio and massage also involved to help his stance and new Rom).

Both easier on the pocket than FP! I've also fed their winter hoof performance balancer with no real difference from the above cheaper alternatives.
 
I have in the past been really impressed with Equimins ones. I used the Hoofmender for my first horse for years, it made a massive difference to his feet. Then had my current boy on the metabalance. Their products are quite well priced.
 
I've been feeding my good doer thunderbrooks base mix. This is a low sugar vit and min supp, with out added cereals and additives! I feed mine 2 cup scoops a day, mixed with molasses free hifi. It's defo made a difference to his feet, coat. And he is only in grass :-)
 
there is another thread if you search about pro earth as i asked recently about it as its cheaper than FP - it seems it works out the same. The other thing Id consider is Formula4Feet which is also an all round supp.
 
I give my cob Pro Balance, with extra Brewers Yeast (and linseed), and his feet are pretty good. He's been barefoot behind for about 18months I think, and bare all round since Oct.

Feet are good, but not amazing - but I'm hoping that when fronts have grown down and weather is better, fronts will be as good as his hinds were before... We were doing 15-25 miles hacking a week, mostly on lanes, plus schooling etc, and he was growing enough hoof his hinds were trimmed every 6 weeks when he was shod in front!
 
NeverSayNever said:
there is another thread if you search about pro earth as i asked recently about it as its cheaper than FP - it seems it works out the same. The other thing Id consider is Formula4Feet which is also an all round supp.
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If you were to feed both forageplus and the pro earth supplements at their recommended rates, fp provides twice the level of the key minerals (with the exception of selenium).

However lots of horses do well on the lower pro earth levels probably because their environment doesn't need such high levels. You could reduce the fp to half and see if you notice any deterioration in his feet. If you do then you know he needs the higher levels.
 
I feed the FP 'Winter Hoof Health Balancer' (swapped over myself from the Winter Balancer) and i feed this together with 100 gms ofLinseed, 50gms Mag oxide (has metabolic issues) and Fast Fibre.

My boy is a good doer too and he's positively thrived on this. My farrier came yesterday and said he'd never seen his feet looking so strong and healthy, with good concavity and nice tight white lines!! Am chuffed to bits as with all this wet weather we've had i'm really pleased his feet have held up as he's out every single day. Must admit though, coming in off the wet regularly will have more than helped the condition of his feet i'm sure.

Good Luck with what you've chosen,...hope it works for you.
 
ihatework said:
Equimins advanced concentrate pellets - much more likely to eat these than vast volumes of powder
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I use these after my trimmer did a bit of analysis on few variations ;) - we did forage analysis before but since moving yards not practical. He was quite fussy with the home made powder mixes but will eat these just out of my hand (they smell though!) - he gets one of their small scoop measures twice a day and it works out pretty good cost wise (cheaper than mixing own)
 
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