Does anyone else's horse go loopy on balancer?

[JJS]

I tried Flower on TopSpec Stud Balancer as a much younger foal, but had to take her off it when it made her as mad as a March hare. Writing it off as that one product, I nonetheless left our grazing to do its work and decided not to over complicate things.

A few days ago I decided to try her on something else as she's been having a pretty rapid growth spurt and I wanted to make sure she was getting everything she needed. I went for Suregrow, but have had exactly the same problem again. Two days of feeding it as a balancer and she went absolutely loopy - bordering on dangerous - in the field: rearing, bucking, and charging around at top speed, missing me by an inch. Stopped feeding it and she seems pretty much back to normal in the space of 24 hours.

Does anyone else have a horse that just can't tolerate balancers? Luckily she's a good doer, so hard feed isn't really necessary, but it makes me wonder whether she'll be able to cope with any feed at all!

As you can see, she managed to throw some serious shapes...

She finally stopped after 20 minutes of non-stop silliness, put her most innocent face on following a major telling off, but was back to charging around again five minutes later.

 

[Cortez]

Why on earth would you want to feed a horse that is looking absolutely fine anything at all?

 

[Sandstone1]

You shouldn't really need to feed her anything if she looks ok and is on good grazing.
It can be very dangerous to over feed youngsters.
If you really need to feed anything something like fast fibre would be better as you need low sugar and starch.

 

[JJS]

Why on earth would you want to feed a horse that is looking absolutely fine anything at all?

You shouldn't really need to feed her anything if she looks ok and is on good grazing.
It can be very dangerous to over feed youngsters.
If you really need to feed anything something like fast fibre would be better as you need low sugar and starch.

I want to point out that these were balancers, nothing more. I'm fully aware of the dangers of overweight youngsters, but this was simply to make sure she was getting any vitamins and minerals that are lacking in our grazing during a period of very rapid growth for her. I'm certainly not pumping her full of hard feed and have no intention of doing so when she looks perfectly fine as is.

The sole reason I posted was to see if anyone else had had similar issues with balancers, as I was always under the impression that they were nothing more than a concentrated source of vitamins and minerals for horses who don't require any additional calories. I was simply surprised that they could cause that sort of behaviour, rather than being in need of any advice on feeding her

 

[Sandstone1]

But balancers can be very fattening. you would be wise to get some proper feed advice from a nutritionist.

 

[JJS]

But balancers can be very fattening. you would be wise to get some proper feed advice from a nutritionist.

Suregrow is specifically formulated for horses that are prone to weight gain. Don't worry - I've done plenty of research on the topic and spoken to lots of people who know their stuff

 

[Sandstone1]

Suregrow is specifically formulated for horses that are prone to weight gain. Don't worry - I've done plenty of research on the topic and spoken to lots of people who know their stuff

Yes im sure you are trying to do your best for your lovely youngster. Just be very careful feeding balancers like that. They can cause rapid growth which is not ideal.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Is either of them based on alfalfa?

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

Suregrow is specifically formulated for horses that are prone to weight gain. Don't worry - I've done plenty of research on the topic and spoken to lots of people who know their stuff

I quite often give Suregrow to the youngsters and mares in foal. I give them half the recommended amount as it's more of a top up on anything they are lacking that wanting them to gain weight. I've never noticed anything go particularly loopy on any balancers I have used.

 

[Archangel]

D&H have some of the highest sugar/starch - for instance Ultimate Balancer 20%. When I was looking for a balancer for my PPID horse I gave up because they all contained too much sugar.

 

[Sandstone1]

D&H have some of the highest sugar/starch - for instance Ultimate Balancer 20%. When I was looking for a balancer for my PPID horse I gave up because they all contained too much sugar.

Exactly, Dont believe the hype some feed companies give out. Read the bag for information.

 

[planete]

Suregrow pellets ingredients:
Wheatfeed, Dehulled Soya Bean Meal, Extracted Sunflower, Cane Molasses, Distiller's Wheat Grains, Limestone Flour, Dicalcium Phosphate, Full Fat Linseed, Barley, Vegetable Oil, Vitamin/Trace Mineral Premix, Skimmed Milk Powder, Salt, L-Lysine, Brewer's Yeast, Calcined Magnesite, Mannan Oligosaccharides

She is probably in such good condition that the starch and sugar are tipping her over the edge. These seem to make up the bulk of the pellets and are certainly not suitable for good doers in spite of the advertising.

 

[SEL]

Not loopy on a balancer but I've had even the powdered supplements cause PSSM symptoms. No one has been able to tell me why.

 

[meleeka]

Mine went loopy on Topspec too. I fed Spillers Lite Balancer without issues. Perhaps you’d be better with a powdered supplement and a bit of low calorie chaff?

 

[texas]

I also feed Spillers lite balancer without any issues.

 

[Sandstone1]

You have to be so careful. A lot of food marketed as suitable for good doers is not necessarily the right thing to feed. The laminitis trust stamp is nothing to go on either. Feed companies pay to have that endorsement.
It does make it very difficult to find the right feed but please dont just assume because its marketed for horse prone to weight gain its the right feed.

 

[tda]

I personally so wouldn't feed a native type youngster with Suregrow, I think it's more designed for blood types.

I've fed topspec lite to variety of ages with no issues.
One of my herd did go a bit daft on Baileys light balancer

 

[ihatework]

Given the amount of sugar in the rapidly growing grass, a small amount of balancer will be negligible on the sugar/starch front.

OP, my dressage mare would go bats*** on most balancers and feeds and any hay/haylage with a high rye content. She was ok on a bit of diet chaff and powder vit/min and competed nationally on virtually nothing!

These stud type feeds really are targeted at sports horses and really shouldn’t be needed for native youngstock, especially when they are as big and as good condition as yours. The grass is good at the moment, if you feel the need to do something a salt/mineral block in the field will be more than sufficient

 

[TGM]

YThe laminitis trust stamp is nothing to go on either. Feed companies pay to have that endorsement.

Just to clarify this, it is true that feed companies have to pay a registration fee to use the logo. However, that doesn't mean they can stick it on any old feed, the feeds with the logo still have to meet fairly strict criteria regarding the level of carbohydrates etc.

 

[ycbm]

But balancers can be very fattening. you would be wise to get some proper feed advice from a nutritionist.

Where can I find one of those who isn't trying to flog me their brand of horse food? I've never heard of one yet who recommends feeding bran (with calcium) and oats, which is all most horses would ever need.

 

[Hallo2012]

Where can I find one of those who isn't trying to flog me their brand of horse food? I've never heard of one yet who recommends feeding bran (with calcium) and oats, which is all most horses would ever need.

genuine Q YBCM....why the bran? i was advised to feed it to previous horse but could only find negative reports............so current pony gets chaff,oats and linseed.
is the bran your chaff equivalent?

 

[twiggy2]

The kids pony could not take a vitamin powder fed straight of my hand let alone a balancer, she used to become super spooky and with no feed she was a very level headed honest sort.

 

[BlackRider]

I fed Baileys lo cal to my horse and he went loopy, I've been told that wheat feed can be a trigger.

Haylage also has a rocket fuel effect.

He just gets thunder brook healthy herbal chop now.

 

[Louby]

My boy went loopy on Lo Cal too, yet was fine with TopSpec Comprehensive?