Balancers - to take off or carry on?

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Stenners

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I know Balancers have been done to death but I'm considering taking him off one completely and trying a powdered one just with some chaff. He's a very anxious (can be tense), sensitive chap. always has been according to previous owners. He's fully up to dat ewith physio, teeth, farrier etc so its just him. He can be very spooky also and just loses focus and would rather jump at a noise he's waiting to happen in 10 minutes time!. I'm currently feeding Hifi Molasses Free and Spillers Daily Balancer. Considering going back to Lite and Lean or changing completely. Any recommends/ helpful tips would be appreciated!
 
Change it and see if it makes a difference is your best bet. The digestible energy of the spillers balancer is 10.5mj/kg which isn't super high but isn't that low either, it's also fairly high in combined sugar/starch (14%), so it certainly wouldn't be a bad idea to take him off it. Despite the name, the light and lean isn't much better (9.5mj/kg and 10% combined sugar/starch)

I'd go for something like Rowan & Barbary ReadyFibre Mash (7.5mj/kg and 7.5% combined) with a powder balancer or even Spillers Happy Hoof (8.8mj/kg and only 5.5% combined sugar starch), Allen & Page Fast Fibre is another good one at 7.5mj/kg and 7.5% combined if you can't get the R&B.

I put Dex on a vits & mins and then took him off and noticed zero difference in him, and his blood tests for his surgery all looked fine, so I don't think they're really always warranted
 
I tried this with Faran. I thought just get a powdered one and that’s that. He developed hives from two that I tried and the gutsy bug bugger refused another two so I just put him back on his pelleted balancer.

No idea why it happened or what was in them to cause those reactions from him so I just thought why fix what’s no broken in the end. He’s gone from baileys Lo cal balancer to their performance balancer now and so far so good.
 
the balancer and hi fi are only a very small part of the diet. I would be looking at the rest ie high sugar grass, hay, haylage etc etc
If you really want to test diet (and it produces the effects you describe in one of my horses) then I would remove grass, feed only late cut or very well soaked hay, or small bag horsehage and see if there is any difference. If there is then start adding everything else back one thing at a time to test them. You may find when you bring grass back you find a lot of difference. You may find that in 6 weeks or so when we get out of the Autumn grass he is better.

how long have he been on the daily balancer? when I put mine (very spooky horse who was by then quiet off grass) on lite and lean he reacted very badly, spooky etc. After discussion with Spillers I introduced it VERY slowly and it took me over 3 weeks to get to 500g. He did settle on it very well in the end but it was not easy. Just wondering if yours has recently gone onto daily balancer too quickly. Just a thought.
 
paddy555 said:
the balancer and hi fi are only a very small part of the diet. I would be looking at the rest ie high sugar grass, hay, haylage etc etc
If you really want to test diet (and it produces the effects you describe in one of my horses) then I would remove grass, feed only late cut or very well soaked hay, or small bag horsehage and see if there is any difference. If there is then start adding everything else back one thing at a time to test them. You may find when you bring grass back you find a lot of difference. You may find that in 6 weeks or so when we get out of the Autumn grass he is better.

how long have he been on the daily balancer? when I put mine (very spooky horse who was by then quiet off grass) on lite and lean he reacted very badly, spooky etc. After discussion with Spillers I introduced it VERY slowly and it took me over 3 weeks to get to 500g. He did settle on it very well in the end but it was not easy. Just wondering if yours has recently gone onto daily balancer too quickly. Just a thought.
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I can't really cut grass out as if i stabled in all the tiem he'd go mad! I had to change suddenly in june as couldn't get lite and lean an dhe's been doing really well until the last week - i do wonder if its the current grass situation not helping
 
Stenners said:
I can't really cut grass out as if i stabled in all the tiem he'd go mad! I had to change suddenly in june as couldn't get lite and lean an dhe's been doing really well until the last week - i do wonder if its the current grass situation not helping
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I think the current grass situation is probably going to be very high on your list. For some I think it is like rocket fuel. You may be able to eliminate it if you see improvement as we get to the end of Nov. At least then you may have some idea as to the cause. Can you do anything such as stable over night and feed a good quantity of hay, give hay before going out in the morning, even put hay in the field. Even though we have grass (lots) those of mine in grass are very keen on hay, I think they realise the grass may not be so good for them ATM whereas the hay helps them. Good luck, very difficult time of the year. :)

ps if you want to get rid of/test the alfalfa question you could switch to Dengie Meadowgrass lite with herbs.
 
paddy555 said:
I think the current grass situation is probably going to be very high on your list. For some I think it is like rocket fuel. You may be able to eliminate it if you see improvement as we get to the end of Nov. At least then you may have some idea as to the cause. Can you do anything such as stable over night and feed a good quantity of hay, give hay before going out in the morning, even put hay in the field. Even though we have grass (lots) those of mine in grass are very keen on hay, I think they realise the grass may not be so good for them ATM whereas the hay helps them. Good luck, very difficult time of the year. :)

ps if you want to get rid of/test the alfalfa question you could switch to Dengie Meadowgrass lite with herbs.
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So he has hay in the field twice a day aswell and on the days he's in he had a full net also. Yes I do think the grass is just mad at the moment! Going to start keeping him in at night i think to keep him off the grass so much whilst it's still a nightmare!
 
When we had competition horses I had them on Top Spec balancer which seemed to work well but was creeping up in price so I changed them over to Equine Answers 365 and can honestly say the only difference was in my bank account! There was no difference in the horses at all.
 
paddy555 said:
I think the current grass situation is probably going to be very high on your list. For some I think it is like rocket fuel. You may be able to eliminate it if you see improvement as we get to the end of Nov. At least then you may have some idea as to the cause. Can you do anything such as stable over night and feed a good quantity of hay, give hay before going out in the morning, even put hay in the field. Even though we have grass (lots) those of mine in grass are very keen on hay, I think they realise the grass may not be so good for them ATM whereas the hay helps them. Good luck, very difficult time of the year. :)

ps if you want to get rid of/test the alfalfa question you could switch to Dengie Meadowgrass lite with herbs.
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This. Mine was muzzled all summer and has only recently had it off - and she's gone wired, exactly like happened in the spring when it all went whoosh! She's also been girthy and her droppings are very soft, which to me, adds up to grass changes.

The only thing that has helped a little for mine has been adding limestone flour to the feed. Does buffer the acid a bit.
 
If think it is very difficult to experiment with balancers. Too many factors out of your control! If you drop one, who is to say if changes seen, if they are any, are down to the absence of that balancer, when it could be down to changes in weather/grass/schooling/anything else? If you do want to experiment, then use the classic "change only one thing at a time" rule to at least try and be methodical about it.
A tricky one!
 
Alfalfa makes no difference to my full D’s attitude or temperament. He’s been on HiFi since I took him off readigrass when he turned four and i Moved him to the new yard either all year grass turnout.

He gets alfalfa pellets mixed with grass pellets and beet pup as a winter mash and that’s been a staple of his diet since I bought him, and I also use this combo for extra energy for outings in summer. The changes in grass however make him a bit of a pest despite being on a track with access to hay.
 
I like the forage plus products. If you give them a ring to discuss your horse I'm sure they'll find you a suitable balancer for him.
 
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