Balancer- costing a small fortune for 5!

[Horses24-7]

I feed all of mine on quality haylage and wondering if I actually need to be feeding a balancer?

1 is a 20yr old retired pony,
1 a first pony for my daughter in v light work,
1 a pont club pony in regular work,
1 4yr old in light work and a
12 year old on full competion work.

They all look well weight wise and I feed them all balancer and hi fi molasses free. It dawned on me the other day that I'm going through so much balancer each month and its made me question if they actually need it? Or if theres a cheaper alternative?

Any thoughts appreciated

 

[ester]

you don't mentiion what the balancer is...
Whether they need it usually depends on how balanced your forage is.

 

[meleeka]

II stopped feeding it and it made no difference to the way they looked and behaves , so you could always do that too.

 

[claret09]

i have never fed a balancer and my boy looks amazing. he is 17.2, 22 and in full work. he is on adlib hay, happy hoof, high fibre nuts, molichop chaff and lots of carrots, he also has equine america kentucky joint supplement, salt and sunflower oil for his coat and joints. he has his feed split between four feeds. i have never given him a balancer and don't feel he needs it.

 

[TheMule]

Find out what minerals are deficient in your grazing and just supplement those, otherwise you are making expensive wee!
Either have your grazing and forage analyses or chat to a local friendly farmer.
I just supplement mine with copper, it's all the extra they need

 

[ycbm]

Find out what minerals are deficient in your grazing and just supplement those, otherwise you are making expensive wee!
Either have your grazing and forage analyses or chat to a local friendly farmer.
I just supplement mine with copper, it's all the extra they need

In theory, Mule, if you are supplementing copper you should also be supplementing zinc.

.

 

[TGM]

i have never fed a balancer and my boy looks amazing. he is 17.2, 22 and in full work. he is on adlib hay, happy hoof, high fibre nuts, molichop chaff and lots of carrots, he also has equine america kentucky joint supplement, salt and sunflower oil for his coat and joints. he has his feed split between four feeds. i have never given him a balancer and don't feel he needs it.

Your horse doesn't need a balancer because you are already giving him feeds that contain vit/min supplementation (ie Happy Hoof and high fibre nuts). One of the main advantages of balancers is that they contain a broad spectrum of vit/mins concentrated into a small amount of feed, so are great for horses that don't need a load of extra calories from commercial compound feeds that often need to be fed at a fairly high rate.

To the OP, no-one can really tell you whether you need a balancer or not, without you having your grazing and haylage analysed. (And even then that is not always a perfect answer if your haylage comes from different fields with different grasses and soils). Even then commercial balancers are a rather blunt tool and just supply a guess at what the majority of average horses/ponies need.

Lots of horses and ponies don't get any supplementary vit/mins at all, whether in conventional hard feed, balancer or powdered supplement form, and are just fine. You could try either reducing the amount per day or skipping it altogether to see how they go. Alternatively you could look at cheaper options - I've found the Spiller's balancers work out pretty cost effective.

 

[JillA]

Find out what minerals are deficient in your grazing and just supplement those, otherwise you are making expensive wee!
Either have your grazing and forage analyses or chat to a local friendly farmer.
I just supplement mine with copper, it's all the extra they need

Forageplus do testing but they also do a generic mineral supplement (winter with vit e, summer without as it is in fresh grazing) and that isn't prohibitively expensive as it lasts a long time.
But what are you balancing? That is what people don't seem to address - if it is vitamins and minerals, as above, know what minerals are deficient (too much selenium for example can be worse than not enough), and what vitamins do they need that they aren't getting from grass or forage?

 

[Pearlsasinger]

II stopped feeding it and it made no difference to the way they looked and behaves , so you could always do that too.

That is exactly what I would do, keep a detailed diary about each equine during the month or so after stopping feeding the balancer and then you will know if they need it or not. Personally I would be very surprised if they do.

 

[Leo Walker]

Progressive Earth do one thats lower spec but should balance most grazing, and it works out about a tenner a month for a 500kgs horse. I'd move
20yr old retired pony, & first pony for my daughter in v light work on to that. The other 3, a pony club pony in regular work, 4yr old in light work and a
12 year old on full competition work to equimins advance complete. It works out about £25 a month but it a higher spec.

 

[AdorableAlice]

I must be the most ignorant owner on the forum, I have never used a balancer.

 

[honetpot]

The only time I used a balancer it been for a specific problem, a foal weaned to early and a pony on limited quality forage because she had laminitis.
When I rang round all the feed companies at the time, Spillers Suregrow was the cheapest and can fed at reduced rates for adult stock.
When you look at the actual ingredients they are very much the same and in the same amounts.If you feel you have to feed it work out the ‘dose’ divide in to the bag size and then work out how much it will cost you at day.

 

[shortstuff99]

I wouldn't bother feeding a pellet balancer, they are full of crap and binders and most of the vitamins get pee'd out. They also (even the light ones) will make your horse fat! Often they cause behaviour issues too. Good quality forage will give your horse a healthy diet.

 

[tda]

I have used and do use balancer on some ponies, but really, if they have access to good grass and quality forage they should be ok, honest 😁

 

[Meredith]

I was using a balancer and the same brand complimentary feed. It was suggested I used another brand. I checked the vits, mins etc and discovered the one feed supplied much the same as 2 much more expensive bags.

 

[AdorableAlice]

I reared all my youngsters on Suregrow. Brilliant stuff and I had no idea it is classed as a balancer. I simply used it to ensure slow and even growth, and to avoid bucket feeding grass kept youngstock. Ignorance is bliss.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I must be the most ignorant owner on the forum, I have never used a balancer.

We used NAF Haylage Balancer when we started feeding haylage rather than hay. Never again! It turned the horses loopy and made them footy. I should have known better.

Now we trust that between the grass at home and the bought in haylage from a farm about 8 miles away that they will get everything they need and if they do need anything else, we will give it to target the deficiency.

 

[DabDab]

I don't feed any of mine a balancer if that helps. I have dabbled with them, but big horse's pssm symptoms seem more pronounced when on them and my 5yo mare thinks they are poison so it just ends up on the floor. Those two both get salt and vitamin e though. My native pony just gets salt - she has excellent temperament, condition and feet so I can't imagine a balancer would make any difference to her.

Try dropping it out for one at a time and see how they go

 

[Leo Walker]

This is Bobbies feet from a few months ago. You can see the event line where she was put on Equimins. Theres a couple of other event lines from moving yards, but even with the other event lines you can see the big improvement in the quality of her feet.

I never get why people are so dead against them. We know that grazing and forage in the UK is unbalanced and not ideal for horses. I'm not in a position to have grazing and forage analysed so I do the next best thing I can do, which is to balance the average grazing in the UK.

 

[KittenInTheTree]

I don't feed balancers either.

 

[ester]

I wouldn't bother feeding a pellet balancer, they are full of crap and binders and most of the vitamins get pee'd out. They also (even the light ones) will make your horse fat! Often they cause behaviour issues too. Good quality forage will give your horse a healthy diet.

Some of them are, at least two of them definitely aren't!

OP we still can't suggest cheaper alternatives if we don't know what you are feeding currently

 

[Maryann]

Mine have mineralised salt licks in their stables. The two little ones are only allowed rabbit rations of hard food but they are on good grass and hay. I feed Alfa A (red) and either oats, or a basic coarse mix when I can't get oats, and anyone who starts doing proper work just gets more oats or coarse mix. The hardest work they have been in is hunting once a week though. Sometimes I wonder if I am over simplifying things but I have had quite a range of horses do well on it.

 

[teddypops]

I must be the most ignorant owner on the forum, I have never used a balancer.

Neither have I.