Best value vitamins or balancers?

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As title really. I am currently feeding Bailey's lo cal balancer which doesn't break the bank but just wondered if there is anything else that works out better value?

I feed at the rate for a 500kg horse as she is around about that weight. Also don't feed an awful lot of hard feed. She just gets her balancer, a large handful of hi fi original and half a scoop of speedibeet.

I know that if you feed certain 'complete feeds' at manufacturers reccomended rates then they will get their dose of vits and mins however not only does this normally work out fairly expensive she doesn't need that amount of feed being pumped into her.

She is also on cortaflex (winter), glucosamine (spring/summer), a calmer and garlic. If there is anything that also contains similar things it would be interesting to compare costs to feeding basic feeds with added supplements against the feeds that already contain this.

She is also technically a 'senior' but doesn't really show it, if this makes much difference...?

Thanks for reading my ramblings!
 
I feed Top Spec senior balancer to my 16.2 18 ish year old mare. It has a joint supplemental ready in it plus many other benefits such as prebiotic, biotin etc. I think it seems expensive at 38 pound a bag but lasts my mare who is fed at 500g horse weight rate 40 days, so only 1 pound a day. It has made a difference to her mobility, she was on devils claw with ex owners and moves better now. I think as it also has the joint supplement it good value.
My daughters pony has the cool balancer and it has helped to chill her out also.
 
Use feedmark balancer , on 3 for 2. Decent value as feed to make sure I keep weight on cob ( yes I know) . Best of all delivered to door!
 
Most "balancers" are made into pellets which require "fillers"..

The best value way to ensure your horse gets required vits n mins is to feed as pure as you can get. This does mean going off the beaten track and sourcing your goods from "specialists" but you will be getting more for your money AND need to feed less of it.

Having done lots of research into the contents of things, I do think D&H Daily, SelenavitE, Progressive Earth and equimins seem to add the least fillers and give you decent amounts of the raw ingredients.

The weight-gain you are looking for in a "balancer" comes from high-fat ingredients such as linseed, soya, and small amounts of starchy additives such as wheat/barley feed (flour). Again, all of the above available much cheaper seperately.

However, if what you want is the convenience of having nearly everything you want in a single bag, then commercial balancers are for you :)
 
Hm, the job of a balancer should be to balance the diet and not to supply some calories.

the calories have to be balanced as well in regard to the weight, age and work of the horse. For this you have to finde the balance about fast energy (Sugar Starch) fat & protein.

Protein is more a building block then a energy supply and you should not overdo this because then it starts to be hardship on the liver & kidneys.

A horse not doing anaerobic work does need only very little "fast energy".

Eating plenty of hay (hay will be tranformed into volatile fatty acids which is the fuel for aerobic work) does serve them very well.

The balance of protein to this, well a horse in hard work will need about 1.2 gram of digestible protein per KG of body weight.
For performance the best ratio is here 5 gram digestible protein to 1 MJ digestible energy.

I don`t know about the protein contend in UK Hay. But allways when you increase the hay you also increase the protein.


A real balancer does not contain calories, it is a concentrated and balanced supply of vitamins and trace elements.

So you need only very little of it.

The reason for this is, the balancer should be fully independend from calories.

If you have a horse in a box rest (injury e.g.) the horse needs a balancer also for to support the healing properties, but it does not need plenty of calories.

A balancer does not need "probiotics" because when you feed a horse like a horse, digestion should be fine.

Bacterial and yeast cultures in the gut should be in a symbiotic balance.

By feeding constantly live cultures of yea sacc it might be possible to provoke an overgrowth of them causing problems to other gut cultures.

A real balancer is not cheap by the KG, but for the reason of the concentration you will only need very little and with this it is economical to feed.

Very little does mean depending on the horse between 35 gram per day and about 80 gram (racehorses in full work).
 
I'm using Thunder Pure Essentials base as a balancer and am happy with the results and price comparisons too.
 
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