Balancers for feet - please help keep me sane

[webble]

My horse isn't a greedy boy at all but does have rubbish feet. I switched from pellet balancer to a powder balancer because it wasn't getting used quickly enough, he didn't like it. I then bought the pro earth platinum hoof because he needs the hoof support, he won't eat that either. I have tried 4 different types of chaff, mixing in mint, mixing in apple juice, speedibeet, chopped carrot etc not interested.

So please wise HHO people can you suggest a pellet balancer that's good for feet that he might not turn his nose up at. Is farriers formula any good?

 

[lynz88]

I was using FP winter hoof and skin and makes a major difference. Off of it, he goes footy and his soles become crumbly. It's happened twice so I know it works for him. I am trialing a mix of PE amino acids and vit b but not sure I am going to stick with it. Unfortunately neither is pelleted. I am tempted to try the equine answers complete next and if not happy with that, will go back to FP. I have heard fussy eaters not liking PE. Thankfully mine is a pig in disguise so don't have this problem!

Ultimately you need L-Lysine, Methonine, zinc, copper, magnesium, and B vitamins for feet. I also feed MSM which also helps with aches and pains. FP, as far as I can tell, has one of the best specs in this respect.

 

[Highmileagecob]

Is he barefoot or shod? If you can encourage the hooves to work as they are meant to, with weight being taken on the back third of the hoof, and the frog acting like a shock absorber, you will encourage blood flow to the foot and start to build a healthy hoof. Check thoroughly for any sign of thrush, and maybe ask your farrier/trimmer to work with you to improve things. Good luck, hope things start to change for the better.

 

[catkin]

Not a pellet, and maybe not suitable for your horse - have you tried mixing the powder in a small handful of soaked grass nuts? Then mix the wet feed into a bit of chaff.
Mine refuse powders if mixed with chaff alone but will eat if mixed into a wet feed/mash.
PS: they get very small feeds too, just enough to carry the vits and mins, that seems to help

 

[holeymoley]

Maybe not everyones choice but I used formula 4 feet when my lamintic horse was growing out his hooves from rotational laminitis and getting rebalanced every 5 weeks. I really rate it, good strong hooves with good sole.

 

[webble]

Not a pellet, and maybe not suitable for your horse - have you tried mixing the powder in a small handful of soaked grass nuts? Then mix the wet feed into a bit of chaff.
Mine refuse powders if mixed with chaff alone but will eat if mixed into a wet feed/mash.
PS: they get very small feeds too, just enough to carry the vits and mins, that seems to help

No but I'll give that a go thank you

 

[webble]

Maybe not everyones choice but I used formula 4 feet when my lamintic horse was growing out his hooves from rotational laminitis and getting rebalanced every 5 weeks. I really rate it, good strong hooves with good sole.

Yes that was one that was on my maybe list thank you

 

[webble]

Is he barefoot or shod? If you can encourage the hooves to work as they are meant to, with weight being taken on the back third of the hoof, and the frog acting like a shock absorber, you will encourage blood flow to the foot and start to build a healthy hoof. Check thoroughly for any sign of thrush, and maybe ask your farrier/trimmer to work with you to improve things. Good luck, hope things start to change for the better.

He is barefoot, his hoof quality isn't bad and he lands correctly. He has a lot of flair on his front feet and then develops cracks which then become holes. We have stopped doing roadwork without hoof boots and that seems to be helping. I just want a balancer as an all round top up
I have recently moved yards to less mud which I'm hoping will help and also moved to 5 week trims from 6.

 

[HashRouge]

Maybe not everyones choice but I used formula 4 feet when my lamintic horse was growing out his hooves from rotational laminitis and getting rebalanced every 5 weeks. I really rate it, good strong hooves with good sole.

Mine also got on quite well with Formula4Feet. She's fussy too and I couldn't get her to eat any of the recommended powder balancers like Pro Earth.

 

[quizzie]

Having steadfastly refused to eat anything "good" for him, regardless of what I tried to disguise it in....I have finally got mine to eat a FP balancer, started with very small amounts and building up.....the magic ingredient was putting it in soaked sainfoin nuts from simple systems...he now licks the bowl clean!

 

[stangs]

Not what you asked about, but I've added Re-leve Mash to chaff to convince horse to get down both balancer and bute. I know it contains ingredients you may not want for the barefoot horse, but I'm working off the logic that the amount of 'bad' I'm giving him (half a handful of mash total if that) is worth of extra amount of 'good' he's getting from slurping up everything in his bowl.

 

[paddy555]

He is barefoot, his hoof quality isn't bad and he lands correctly. He has a lot of flair on his front feet and then develops cracks which then become holes. We have stopped doing roadwork without hoof boots and that seems to be helping. I just want a balancer as an all round top up
I have recently moved yards to less mud which I'm hoping will help and also moved to 5 week trims from 6.

all my barefoot horses have always had equimins advanced complete and their hoof quality is very good. However in the situation you have described whilst a balancer may be helpful I would see this as much as a trimming problem to get the growth tight

 

[webble]

all my barefoot horses have always had equimins advanced complete and their hoof quality is very good. However in the situation you have described whilst a balancer may be helpful I would see this as much as a trimming problem to get the growth tight

It's a few factors, farrier is excellent but my old yard was very wet and that combined with feet that were far from a matching set when I got him make things challenging. Hopefully a drier new yard and shorter trim cycle will help

 

[Fieldlife]

I was using FP winter hoof and skin and makes a major difference. Off of it, he goes footy and his soles become crumbly. It's happened twice so I know it works for him. I am trialing a mix of PE amino acids and vit b but not sure I am going to stick with it. Unfortunately neither is pelleted. I am tempted to try the equine answers complete next and if not happy with that, will go back to FP. I have heard fussy eaters not liking PE. Thankfully mine is a pig in disguise so don't have this problem!

Ultimately you need L-Lysine, Methonine, zinc, copper, magnesium, and B vitamins for feet. I also feed MSM which also helps with aches and pains. FP, as far as I can tell, has one of the best specs in this respect.

I thought amounts of stuff in Equine Answers was quite low compared to FP!

 

[lynz88]

You're right in that but it is broader spectrum so am curious. Am also looking at the Aviform Pro Complete. I know what is going to happen - I will end up going back to FP but sometimes worth experimenting

 

[Roxylola]

Have you tried a small amount of the pro hoof? Bon loves his food but was not keen at first to eat this. I added a sprinkle at a time and built up to a full scoop

 

[webble]

Have you tried a small amount of the pro hoof? Bon loves his food but was not keen at first to eat this. I added a sprinkle at a time and built up to a full scoop

No but that's a good idea thank you, I'll try that tonight

 

[criso]

I blend my own, FP pro trace 3, magox, yeasaac, joint supplement but have also bought copper, zinc and selenium separately.

It tastes horrible and I have a fussy horse but I built up slowly over many weeks and if he was eating a quantity, didn't increase for a while. Now he licks the bowl clean. I also found what food he likes, in his case not too mushy, must have grass chaff or similar.

And add just before feeding otherwise the taste leeches into the feed more.

Another option may be the Progressive Earth Pro Mineral. It uses the oxide versions of copper and zinc which are less bulky. They are supposed to be less absorbed than the Bioplex versions but if he's not eating those, he's not getting anything.

 

[Griffin]

I had very good results with Feedmark's Hardy Hoof with a horse with soft hooves. They sell palatability samples, so you don't have to pay the full cost of a bucket for them not to eat it.

 

[splashgirl45]

I used formula4feet for my cushings mare and her feet really improved. I stopped feeding it and her feet went back to splitting , put her back on it and feet improved again so kept her on it for the rest of her life . Sometimes different things work for horses so it may not work for yours but did for mine, so much so that my farrier asked me if I had changed her feed as her feet had improved so much…

 

[Rowreach]

Are you feeding any salt? Mine get 10g/10kg bw per day, ordinary table salt. Makes a huge difference and costs pennies.

 

[webble]

Are you feeding any salt? Mine get 10g/10kg bw per day, ordinary table salt. Makes a huge difference and costs pennies.

That's another thing he won't eat! I leave him a salt lick which he also doesn't touch

 

[Zoeypxo]

I can only get mine to eat PE balancer with sugarbeet

 

[Polos Mum]

the good minerals in all of the quality ones just taste grim - fact of life minerals are horrible.

Greedy horses don't care, more picky ones will. Anything they eat happily probably doesn't have enough quality minerals in or is full of other stuff.

It's a trial and error to find what's the least worse stuff you can mix it with (building up in small quantities first) to get it in. A handful of soaked grass nuts is well worth a try, sugar beet in small quantities. I have a cheap bag of pasture mix (dread to think what's in it!) and one of mine has a handful of that, another will eat it sprinkled over top chop zero !

The manufacturers don't mix it will palatable stuff because every horse is different and needs a different level of encouragement to eat it.

 

[webble]

He has decided he won't eat it with sugar beet. This week he has had farriers formula samples which were also a no. A friend has suggested mixing with baileys no 8 which I'm waiting for a sample of

Does anyone has any experience of cavalor nutri fibre?

 

[Roxylola]

Grass nuts?



What about a smidge of saracens recovery mash? Most people say horses find that really palatable, and you can buy small packs of that

 

[FatboyJim]

I used to use Pink Mash as a base to get my hairy cob to eat his FP balancer, but as I kept repeatedly reading negative articles about soya (and soya hulls) I thought I would try to replace that with soaked grass nuts.

That was generally successful, but he’d have days where he wouldn’t finish the bucket. I’m conscious about him getting enough vitamins and minerals as he has previously had a bout of mechanical laminitis with his previous owner (or at least we think it was mechanical – his other hooves show no WL stretching and are generally have the strength that you’d expect from cobs). I’m trying to make a concerted effort to allow that foot to heal so I removed shoes in August ’22 as he was collapsing through the heel even with pads and magic cushion. I also got his microbiome tested last February/March so we’ve been working through the EquiBiome foods.

As a result of all of that… he’s got quite a complicated bucket!

1 largish mug (dry volume) of soaked grass nuts
2 75ml scoops of FP laminae balancer
40-60ml scoop of FP Topline Plus– fed to help improve hoof quality and hopefully quell the insatiable appetite of Jim (has not really worked on this second point)
3x scoops Hilton Herbs cleavers and marigold – helps with mallanders & sallanders, CPL and skin in general
1x Tsp FP B vitamins
Biome 6 (has previously had 5,4 and 2)
25ml scoop each of oregano, rosemary and thyme
25ml Detox gold
25ml Nav-X Gold-to help with circulation in the feet
25ml Freeway Gold – recently had an asthma diagnosis and using this as a follow on from the Equihaler
1xTsp beetroot powder – bought this to try to improve the palatability but it wasn’t that successful so I’m just trying to use it up

What has really boosted the palatability is adding 2x scoops of Hilton Herbs Insu-lite. I was quite scared at his reaction when I added it as he HOOVERED it up. He did not come up for air! It consists of psyllium husks, artichoke, fenugreek, garlic, kelp, mint and ginger so it might be worth looking into adding fenugreek (Jim’s not that bothered by garlic or mint).

Apologies for the essay!!!

 

[Boulty]

Mine is a PITA to get him to eat things that are "good" for him. To the point there was one chaff in all of creation he would eat & it's not necessarily what I would have chosen. He changed his mind frequently about what soaked feed he liked. Mint worked for a bit before he decided it was super boring. Beetroot worked to get about 2/3 reccomended amount into him. He did turn out to have suspected hind gut issues & his appetite did improve on equisure (sp?) coated bicarb.

Honestly the thing that has made the most difference in terms of what he'll eat is him being on a track system eating a mostly hay diet. He now eats the full amount of Forage plus in a relatively plain feed.

 

[Landcruiser]

I use Equipmins TipTop powder but it comes in a pellet form as well. It's cheaper than PE and mine (all barefoot) do well on it. All 3 have very good horn quality with no splitting or cracking.

 

[Caol Ila]

I add this,https://www.baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk/products/garlic-supplement, to Fin's feed and he loves it. Hoovers up his Progressive Earth supplement quite happily. I had been mixing it with Dengie grass nuts, but I'm trying to change them over to a grass chaff to (a) cut soaking faff and (b) Hermosa doesn't like the Dengie grass nuts anyway.

I have tried both horses on the Emerald Green grass nuts, much loved on this forum. If they had middle fingers, they would have waved them at me.

I am currently trying them on Thunderbooks chaff (I know.....). Fin loves it, so long as it includes garlic. Hermosa likes the chaff straight, but she is dubious of it with the PE supplement. Grrrr. She'll finish it slowly if I leave it in overnight. But I would like to find a vehicle for the powder that is both healthy and tasty. It's tricky. The things that taste good to a horse are the unhealthy things. They are no different than us.