Balancers!!

[2awesomenatives]

Looking for recommendations on a good pellet balancer for my boy.

7yr old New Forest, Barefoot, in Light to Medium work. Lives out 24/7 on grass and hay if needed. He is a perfect weight at the moment so nothing high in sugar/starch

He is currently on Spillers Lite and Lean but it has gone up quite a bit in price. I am also finding that the pellets end up going really soft and some end up mouldy, even the ones on top. I have tried several ways of storing it but it doesnt seem to make a difference.

Thanks

 

[Needtoretire]

Opti-Care Balancer - GAIN Equine

Nutrient-Rich, Multi-Purpose Balancer With A Low Starch, Non-Heating Formulation.

www.gainanimalnutrition.com

20kg bags, all of mine bar one are on this and they look fabulous. Affordable, ideal for leisure horses, I don't mix it with anything, just chuck in feed bucket. They are on limited grazing and soaked hay.

 

[Fieldlife]

equimins advanced concentrate. Comes in buckets with a lid, and dont feed much. https://www.equimins-online.com/en/vits-mins/713-equimins-advance-concentrate-complete-pellets.html

 

[Jambarissa]

It's a hard one because really you need to know what he's missing to balance out your grass. You could get it tested if you've concerns. You can look online for what type of soil you're on in terms of minerals. Does he have any issues?

Equimins pellet balancer is good in terms of specification and comes in a plastic tub in smaller quantities.

I personally feed magnesium at this time of year plus a variety of herbs, you can get a summer herbal balancer from Horse Herbs or Hilton.

 

[VRIN]

I use blue chip and it suits my horse very well

 

[Burnttoast]

I don't think there's any point unless you've tested your grass and forage, after which you'll almost certainly be looking at specific minerals. Having done quite a few tests on grass and hay in my local area I've come to the conclusion that mineral profiles vary so much that off-the-shelf balancers are almost entirely pointless. The cheapest way is to get forage from a different soil type to your grazing to introduce variety that a confined horse can't get.

 

[2awesomenatives]

It's a hard one because really you need to know what he's missing to balance out your grass. You could get it tested if you've concerns. You can look online for what type of soil you're on in terms of minerals. Does he have any issues?

Equimins pellet balancer is good in terms of specification and comes in a plastic tub in smaller quantities.

I personally feed magnesium at this time of year plus a variety of herbs, you can get a summer herbal balancer from Horse Herbs or Hilton.

He doesn't have any issues, occasional sticky stifle but that has got better over time. Where do I look online regarding the soil? The balancer that I currently use has magnesium in it but im not sure in what quantity

 

[2awesomenatives]

I don't think there's any point unless you've tested your grass and forage, after which you'll almost certainly be looking at specific minerals. Having done quite a few tests on grass and hay in my local area I've come to the conclusion that mineral profiles vary so much that off-the-shelf balancers are almost entirely pointless. The cheapest way is to get forage from a different soil type to your grazing to introduce variety that a confined horse can't get.

How do you do the tests on grass and hay? Also what do you mean by getting forage from a different soil type?

 

[Burnttoast]

How do you do the tests on grass and hay? Also what do you mean by getting forage from a different soil type?

I used Forageplus. Soils vary widely in their composition and mineral levels. For example, I'm on gravelly glacial drift, which in my case tends to be very low in some important minerals and very high in less desirable ones, and it was low in organic matter when I tested it, so prone to rain washing minerals out of the root zone. I get my hay from an area of chalky boulder clay to the south of me - that soil tends to hang on to minerals better and the balance tends to be better overall, so the hay from it is 'better' than my grass, in terms of what horses need.

 

[Burnttoast]

Basic explanation of soil types here https://www.rhs.org.uk/soil-composts-mulches/soil-types

 

[Horseysheepy]

I've just put my good doer on GWF One Cup pellets
She gets the 100g recommended a day. It comes with the measuring cup so really easy to use.
She gets this in her Hi fi lite and absolutely gobbles it down!

 

[Fieldlife]

How do you do the tests on grass and hay? Also what do you mean by getting forage from a different soil type?

I dont particularly agree with the advice on testing / different soil types.

I have tested a range of grass / hay and haylage sources.

It is challenging to get useful data to use as two different neighbouring fields can give different results. So if graze different fields it changes. Many hay suppliers cut from multiple fields. The proportion of the diet that is grass and hay varies. So the calculations are complicated and ever changing.

Soil profiles do not necessarily reflect the grass / hay profile from same soil. They are useful for supplementing soil, but not really for showing what deficiencies your forage might contain.

Having done lots of forage analysis, I swung back round to assuming a typical UK forage profile being the most useful figures.

Most UK forage will be low in
magnesium
selenium
zinc
copper

So I would look for a balancer providing decent amounts of these.

 

[Burnttoast]

I dont particularly agree with the advice on testing / different soil types.

I have tested a range of grass / hay and haylage sources.

It is challenging to get useful data to use as two different neighbouring fields can give different results. So if graze different fields it changes. Many hay suppliers cut from multiple fields. The proportion of the diet that is grass and hay varies. So the calculations are complicated and ever changing.

Soil profiles do not necessarily reflect the grass / hay profile from same soil. They are useful for supplementing soil, but not really for showing what deficiencies your forage might contain.

Having done lots of forage analysis, I swung back round to assuming a typical UK forage profile being the most useful figures.

Most UK forage will be low in
magnesium
selenium
zinc
copper

So I would look for a balancer providing decent amounts of these.

You are likely to get 'better' forage from certain soil types, though (base-rich, mildly alkaline) than say nutrient-leached or drift soils where the minerals are very out of whack. My grass and soil tests, when I did them on my own land, were basically in agreement, but I always based my feeding on the forage, as that's the bit relevant to the horse. Soils can give a general indication of difference and obtaining forage from different areas can be a cheap and useful way of just evening things out a bit (particularly if the grass you have access to is very weird). One yard I was on I had retested as there was so much iodine it looked like a mistake in the analysis (it wasn't). I was advised not to feed it as 100% of the diet so had to feed hay all year round.

 

[Fieldlife]

You are likely to get 'better' forage from certain soil types, though (base-rich, mildly alkaline) than say nutrient-leached or drift soils where the minerals are very out of whack. My grass and soil tests, when I did them on my own land, were basically in agreement, but I always based my feeding on the forage, as that's the bit relevant to the horse. Soils can give a general indication of difference and obtaining forage from different areas can be a cheap and useful way of just evening things out a bit (particularly if the grass you have access to is very weird). One yard I was on I had retested as there was so much iodine it looked like a mistake in the analysis (it wasn't). I was advised not to feed it as 100% of the diet so had to feed hay all year round.

Yes similar I was at a yard where Iron and Manganese were VERY high in grass (blocks uptake of Zinc and Copper), buying hay not made very locally did help balance it out. But AFAIK typical UK hay will be likely to be low in zinc / copper / magnesium / selenium whether from loam / chalk / clay etc. (with obvious exceptions) so mixing and matching only helpful if you know what you are trying to decrease, and what the profile of what you are swapping in is.

 

[Burnttoast]

Yes similar I was at a yard where Iron and Manganese were VERY high in grass (blocks uptake of Zinc and Copper), buying hay not made very locally did help balance it out. But AFAIK typical UK hay will be likely to be low in zinc / copper / magnesium / selenium whether from loam / chalk / clay etc. (with obvious exceptions) so mixing and matching only helpful if you know what you are trying to decrease, and what the profile of what you are swapping in is.

My grass, while high in the usual suspects, is also very high in Mg and low in Ca. I prefer analysis for the information it gives - after all, if I'd had breeding stock on the high iodine grass I'd have wanted to know about that. Then you can make informed decisions about whether any form of adjustment or balancing is really required and if so what. But any different hay will go some way to replicating the experience a horse would have in nature, particularly if you vary the supply as much as possible.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I feed the spillers daily balancer it's the cheaper than the others maybe try that as your already using spillers.

Mine are barefoot and cope ok on it.

 

[Ratface]

I've always used TopSpec ones. The current horse is on TopSpec Anti-Lam, as he had a minor brush with suspected laminitis some years ago. To date, and with very careful grazing management, he's been OK.

 

[SO1]

Bert 6 year old new forest is on feedmark super saver vitamins mixed with some molasses free chaff.

If you want pellets rather than powder I have used feedmark slimaid and blue chip native for my previous NF.

 

[equinerebel]

I feed the spillers daily balancer it's the cheaper than the others maybe try that as your already using spillers.

Mine are barefoot and cope ok on it.

Me too. Mine has it in a treat ball as she doesn't really eat feed.

 

[SEL]

It sounds like you have a storage issue rather than a balancer issue though? I've never had a problem with Spillers going off but I store in those blue food containers.

 

[Peglo]

I also use equimins advance but in powder form.

I did use equivite original ( I don’t think the ingredients are as good) and when I took mine off it, her feet started chipping. That was in summer so I will always have her on something.

I agree with Sel though. It must be the way you’re storing it or is the date short when you buy it? I wouldn’t expect it to go mouldy that quick.

 

[2awesomenatives]

I also use equimins advance but in powder form.

I did use equivite original ( I don’t think the ingredients are as good) and when I took mine off it, her feet started chipping. That was in summer so I will always have her on something.

I agree with Sel though. It must be the way you’re storing it or is the date short when you buy it? I wouldn’t expect it to go mouldy that quick.

Storage wise, i have tried storing it in the original feed bag and also emptying the bag into the container in these place:
A Shed
A Metal Feed Bin
A Freezer Chest

I must admit that the Lite and Lean Balancer has a really good % of all Vits and Mins and he looks brilliant on it, I just seem to be wasting a lot of it!

 

[ecb89]

Don’t know if you’ve had a dodgy batch but I never have that issue with lite and lean.

 

[SEL]

The only time I've had a problem with my feed going mouldy was in a black bin storage container - I think the container would have been ok except another livery left paper bags of opened feed around and they'd got damp. Once mould started on her feed it spread to all of ours.

When we binned hers, gave everything a good scrub and the whole feed room a tidy (full of junk) I think the air could move again and we didn't have an issue

My blue containers are the best I've found for storage. Rats can't seem to get in them and nothing has ever smelt mouldy even after months

 

[HollyWoozle]

I've also never had an issue storing Lite and Lean and we only feed it to our mini so a bag lasts quite a while. We use a blue plastic feed bin and keep it in our cool garage.

 

[2awesomenatives]

The only time I've had a problem with my feed going mouldy was in a black bin storage container - I think the container would have been ok except another livery left paper bags of opened feed around and they'd got damp. Once mould started on her feed it spread to all of ours.

When we binned hers, gave everything a good scrub and the whole feed room a tidy (full of junk) I think the air could move again and we didn't have an issue

My blue containers are the best I've found for storage. Rats can't seem to get in them and nothing has ever smelt mouldy even after months

What are the blue containers?

 

[Fieldlife]

What are the blue containers?

These I would imagine - https://shop.smithsofthedean.co.uk/30-litre-clamp-top-drum-701-p.asp Or can get old mango Chutney Drums

 

[Fieldlife]

Storage wise, i have tried storing it in the original feed bag and also emptying the bag into the container in these place:
A Shed
A Metal Feed Bin
A Freezer Chest

I must admit that the Lite and Lean Balancer has a really good % of all Vits and Mins and he looks brilliant on it, I just seem to be wasting a lot of it!

Have you fully disinfected the storage container after the mold first appeared?

If balancer being kept in a mold free, dry, air tight container it really shouldn't go moldy.

 

[2awesomenatives]

This is what i store it in currently. I have other Pellet feed in these containers and I've never had a problem with those

 

[Fieldlife]

View attachment 141964 This is what i store it in currently. I have other Pellet feed in these containers and I've never had a problem with those

I wonder though once mold got in, maybe through accidental water ingress, whether mold is now living invisibly in the container, hence it keeps coming back?