Alternatives to a balancer

T

Tangaroo

Well-Known Member
Joined
31 December 2005
Messages
2,534
Visit site
I just wondered what people use as a balancer for their horses. I rang Topspec and they recommended their comprehensive balancer for my boy but to be honest at £38 a bag im wondering if there is an alternative. Do people use powdered balancers or vit/min supplenments instead of these expensive pelleted balancers
 
I use Horse and Pony Direct balancer, great value for money ingredient wise.

Other alternatives I would use are either Equimins Vit/Min powder or Forageplus balancer, which is also a powder.

I personally prefer the pellets for ease of use because my horses only get a very small amount of soaked grass nuts for hard feed and with powders you need to feed more to be able to mix it in.
 
I use Thunderbrooks - it sounds expensive at £35/15kg but you dont actually feed very much. Lasts me 2.5 months in summer and 1 month in winter (obviously somewhere in the middle in spring & autumn). My boy gets no hard feed, just the TB chaff and ad-lib hay
 
When I was feeding minerals at the recommended rate, buying at best prices, available to me, it cost 75p per day for minerals, the cost per bag is irrelevant, it is the cost per day that is used.
I specifically mention minerals cos if you buy cheap pony nuts , you need to feed buckets full to get the same minerals in to them, which ends up costing you more, and you are probably feeding a lot of unnecessary feedstuffs.
 
Last edited:
JillA is right - if you feed a balancer without knowing why and what deficiency you are seeking to correct then the chances are you are wasting your money.

If you feed to manufacturer's spec then you don't need anything additional. If you feed forage only or below the recommended amount of hard feed then you might need to supplement some vits & mins. Some straights cause an imbalance you need to correct - but better to correct that directly than in with a cocktail of stuff you don't need.

When I did the maths - and I admit it was about 7 years ago so prices might have changed - it was cheaper to feed the correct amount of a medium priced feed than to feed less of it and add a supplement. But when I had a retired oldie out of work I did have a forage only diet and a vit/min supplement. Otherwise everything is in medium / hard work and receiving hard feed.
 
Demented Elf said:
I use Horse and Pony Direct balancer, great value for money ingredient wise.

Other alternatives I would use are either Equimins Vit/Min powder or Forageplus balancer, which is also a powder.

I personally prefer the pellets for ease of use because my horses only get a very small amount of soaked grass nuts for hard feed and with powders you need to feed more to be able to mix it in.
Click to expand...

^^ same here. Great value and they eat up their tiny rations well. They look fabulous on that and plenty of hay. I occasionally pop some oats in to give them a boost in hard work.
 
JillA said:
To use a balancer you need to know what you are balancing.
Click to expand...

Totally agree, how do you know the top spec balancer will give your horse what it needs? Because I can't use top spec or any balancers with iron in. My ground is so high in iron I mustn't add more plus I'm v low in copper, top spec has sod all copper in and higher iron so would do my horses more harm then good. In actual fact if you sit down and do the math top spec is a rip off, v low amounts off vits,mins but then most balancers are. Unless you test your grazing etc you do not know what your horse needs and could totally waste your money.
 
Top spec all in one supplement is supposed to be the vit & minerals that go into the comprehensive balancer. Assume other stuff goes into balancer as quite a lot more money for equivalent feeding rate
 
JillA said:
To use a balancer you need to know what you are balancing.
Click to expand...

Myloubylou said:
Top spec all in one supplement is supposed to be the vit & minerals that go into the comprehensive balancer. Assume other stuff goes into balancer as quite a lot more money for equivalent feeding rate
Click to expand...

The rest is cheap byproduct!! They say grain free because they use the outer husk with the inner fine fibres, no different from most nuts, just balancer = stupid price.
 
IF you decide to go down the pelleted balancer route then look at Heygates, their balancer is around the £13-15 mark.
 
I have tried most of them to keep costs down: Top spec all in one (why feed all the useless fillers that turn it into a pellet?!) then moved onto Gain Opti-care as it was a lot cheaper. Recently settled on Equimins advance that works out at 77p a day but has no molasses or alfalfa in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top