Barefoot Taliban, I'm researching and I need your help!

[Jazzy B]

Barefoot taliban - if you were to say for example, feed say, fast fibre and Micronised Linseed and then added an off the shelf balancer i.e. spillers, top spec or baileys for example would that be an adequate diet for the barefooted equine alongside ad lib haylage?

 

[MagicMelon]

Dont see why not. Balancers shouldnt be full of sugar which I believe is all that the barefoot diet wants to avoid. Personally I dont follow a special diet with my 3 barefoot horses and they're all doing really well.

 

[thatsmygirl]

There is some people who have found that topspec do not agree with barefoot horses but don't know why. Iv researched balancers before and tbh most are cereal based so I wouldn't feed and all are low in vits/mins compaired to the likes of pro hoof, equimins advance complete etc.

 

[Jazzy B]

MagicMelon - what do you feed yours then? being very nosy what breed/kind of work do they do?

thatmygirl - do you think balancers are a complete waste of time then?

 

[TigerTail]

Personally I wouldnt feed an 'off the shelf balancer' as often there are a lot of fillers and binders, things like wheat feed, soy, whey protein etc in place of the more expensive bio plex minerals.

Ingredients are generally listed in order of quantity/importance - mag ox shouldnt be last in a uk balancer! Red highlights would worry me if you have a horse with foot issues.

EGs

Topspec balancer

Ingredients: Soya Ext, Wheat feed, Full fat soya, Grassmeal, Linseed expeller, High fibre oat by-product, Vitamin premix, Cane molassed, Dicalcium phosphate, Calcium carbonate, Sodium chloride, Magnesium oxide.

Baileys Lo-Cal Balancer

Grass Meal, Distillers Grains, Wheatfeed, Micronised Soya, Dicalcium
Phosphate, Molasses, Calcium Carbonate, Vitamins and Minerals, Yea-Sacc®1026 Yeast Culture

Cant find the spillers ingredients on line for you.

If I couldnt do forage analysis Id use either Pro Balance or Forage Plus balancers. Wouldnt waste my hard earned cash on anything else, too many extras too little minerals

 

[Erin]

All the balancers I've come across don't contain adequate amounts of the things we are lacking in forage in the UK (namely copper and zinc) that seem to make a big difference to hoof health.

But, as with everything, the 'sometimes, not always' rule applies.

 

[Sol]

Dan was on TopSpec when I first took his shoes off, but I was recommended to try this http://www.thunderbrook.co.uk/equine-pure-essentials-base-mix/ a few months later (not having particular issues, but tbh I didn't feel that the Top Spec was right either! He's been on that for 18 months nearly now & looks great, has really helped him muscle up too He just gets that & some chaff. Haylage at night & out in the day.