Ergh! What's the point in a balancer if

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Ellietotz

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Every feed out there has all those things in it already but at different amounts? Surely makes it impossible for the balancer to be balancing properly if there's more of the same elements in the feeds?
Is it possible to get a feed that doesn't have things that the balancer contains that won't taste like plain Ryvitas?
 
Most "balancers" are not balancing the feed or forage given but are a complete vit/ min supplement with a few additions so in general no diet will be perfect whether they get a balancer or not, they were originally designed to balance an oat/ forage based diet and very quickly caught on to the fact that horse owners like the idea of a complete feed that covers everything so they took off as a concept.

I don't use one, have never done so as I think they are a waste of money because most horses get all they require from grass and forage anyway, if you know what is lacking in your grazing and forage you can top up with those minerals if you want, if you need something specific to help with an issue then source it yourself rather than waste money on a balancer that, as you can see, is going to unbalance the diet she is on, that said I don't feed any compound feed either, mine get plain grass nuts and chopped grass to carry any supplements.
 
Agree with be positive... the word "balancer" is a total misnomer if it's a whole range of vits n mins all chucked in there using the NRC as a guide.

To REALLY balance out your forage and grass, you must test it first to see what you actually need AND what your horse finds easy/difficult to metabolise which will require blood and ursine tests. THAT is the whole point.

Feed companies use the word balancer like it's a miracle do it all powder that'll make your horse grow wings or something. While it's generally ok to chuck something in regardless, you're paying for "expensive wee" to quote another HHO member once not so long ago.
 
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Unless you think your horse is unhealthy, a balancer is of no use to her.
If she has a particular problem, you might want to find out if she is lacking in something and feed that. For instance my Cushings mare has *very* sensitive skin, so alongside her prescribed Prascend, I give her Vit.E.
Otherwise, it is simply successful marketing by the feed companies, who are almost as good at it as the rug companies are!
 
Ellietotz said:
Every feed out there has all those things in it already but at different amounts? Surely makes it impossible for the balancer to be balancing properly if there's more of the same elements in the feeds?
Is it possible to get a feed that doesn't have things that the balancer contains that won't taste like plain Ryvitas?
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There is nothing wrong, to a horse, with a feed which tastes like plain ryvitas. There are few horses on the planet that don't relish oats and bran at seven pounds for twenty kilos.
 
ycbm said:
There is nothing wrong, to a horse, with a feed which tastes like plain ryvitas. There are few horses on the planet that don't relish oats and bran at seven pounds for twenty kilos.
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Unfortunately, my mare would disagree! I had topchop zero and she spat it out everywhere! Had to mix it with more pony nuts than amount of chop sadly. I need something that can have supplements in which don't have loads of other things already in it preferably but can't seem to find one. There is a plain grass chop but it's really high in calories.
 
cavalo branco said:
I've never fed a balancer either, they have always felt too much a scattergun approach. If your horse has a specific need then give a specific supplement surely?
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I was hoping to transition to barefoot and the pro earth balancer was recommended. I just don't know what to feed it with without overdoing everything else.
 
If you are going to transition to b/f, you certainly don't want to be feeding pre-mixed feeds with lots of ingredients, as they will almost all contain sugar and starchy stuff which the horse doesn't need.
Before you take the shoes off, you need to get your horse established on a low sugar, low starch diet. We feed Agrobs Wiesencobs to all our horses, young and old, and add in anything that we think they need, so the oldies get cooked linseed but the others don't need it, they just get linseed oil. They all have salt, too. The youngsters have never worn shoes and the oldies had theirs taken off in stages.
 
be positive said:
I don't use one, have never done so as I think they are a waste of money because most horses get all they require from grass and forage anyway, if you know what is lacking in your grazing and forage you can top up with those minerals if you want, if you need something specific to help with an issue then source it yourself rather than waste money on a balancer that, as you can see, is going to unbalance .
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yep, they are a great marketing success-and a complete waste of money. and unless they've changed recently, often contain stuff that are arguably not great for horses in the first place, such as dairy derived products.

the only thing I feed are agrobs cobs and a bit of museli in the depths of winter if needed.
 
Ellietotz said:
I was hoping to transition to barefoot and the pro earth balancer was recommended. I just don't know what to feed it with without overdoing everything else.
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The idea with balancers is that you feed them with non supplemented feeds like grass nuts or chaff, beet, oats etc. They are not really to be fed alongside already supplemented feeds like your normal mix or horse and pony cube. If you do feed them alongside a supplemented mix/cubes then you have to reduce the quantities of each accordingly - ie if you feed half the recommended amount of mix then feed half the recommended amount of balancer. If you are feeding the full recommended amount of cubes/mix you won't need a balancer anyway! But if you want to feed a balancer then much easier to feed alongside unsupplemented feeds - what you choose depends on factors like whether your horse is a good doer or not, or has any intolerances.
 
Ellietotz said:
I was hoping to transition to barefoot and the pro earth balancer was recommended. I just don't know what to feed it with without overdoing everything else.
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All of mine bar one have eaten it happily in bran and straw chop. If you are going to feed bran then you should add a little bit of limestone flour to balance the excess phosphorus in bran. My friend feeds hers in speedibeet. There really is no need, with most horses, for any expensive feed.

I have one 'speshul' horse on saracen re-leve. Three others don't even get to sniff the bag, it's too expensive.

Horses on grass and decent forage should not need a full spectrum vitamin and mineral balancer.
 
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Ellietotz said:
I was hoping to transition to barefoot and the pro earth balancer was recommended. I just don't know what to feed it with without overdoing everything else.
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Mine hated the taste of the Pro Earth hoof balancer and she's normally the horse equivalent of a dustbin. The only way mine will eat it is if it's mixed with a handful of Keyflow Pink Mash which is really low in starch and sugar so great for bf. If you go on the Keyflow website you can order a free sample to be posted to you :).
 
I agree that using a balancer is pointless when it's fed along with various mixes available today. I would only use one if I was feeding plain chaff or straights. I have one horse here that needs to lose weight so he is on just chaff with a balancer. The others are on Pure Feeds mixes which contain a balancer. They are grass and straw chaff, balancer and various grains and pellets according to the requirements of the horse. No point in adding a balancer to that.
 
I would feed speedibeet with your supplement and not worry about the balancer until you see how that goes. If she has decent forage then she shouldn't need a balancer. Going barefoot i took shoes off my two years ago and they had nothing but grass in the summer and a bit of our own hay through the winter. I have never fed a balancer and see no need to.

I find speedibeet great as it is unmolassed so doesn't have the sugars in but still smells good, my oldie goes mad for hers if she can smell it.
 
Ellietotz said:
Does anyone know of straight feeds that don't have any of these elements already in?
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You are worrying too much. Just feed straights with the 'foot' supplement, that's what the supplements were designed for. Don't feed a balancer. There is no food that contains none of the elements in a supplement.
 
Basically a balancer is usually a vit and min supp with some protein added then on top of that some specific stuff say for joints for veterans whatever .
I feed straights mainly haylege oats , linseed and bran and a balancer from forageplus .
Balancers are just supplements .
 
You are saying balancer which is making people think of TopSpec and the like, but actually its just a mineral balancer that you are wanting to feed. That and salt in something like pink mash/speedi beet/grass nuts is fine. You only need to feed enough to get them to eat the supplements, so its not enough for them to get any nutrients/calories from.

Its what mine gets and if I ever stop I notice a deterioration in his feet and coat. Mine is working pretty hard at the minute so I've got some oats to feed him once the grass stops growing completely.
 
Mine gets a handful of equibeet, a long soak, unmollassed beet pellet, much cheaper than kwik beet or speedibeet, plus his progressive earth supplement, salt, ground linseed, plus hay.
 
I've never understood the need for all these posh feeds.

I literally feed everything on chaff, grass nuts and sugar beet. Even those in hard work seem to do fine.
 
I feed a balancer as my mare is on restricted grazing and soaked hay. She gets it, plus supplements for arthritis and sweetitch, in speedibeet with some plain oat straw chaff to bulk it out. Some dried mint chucked in makes it more palatable but to be honest she's greedy and generally eats it anyway!
 
And that's what it's for, Fjord. If only everyone who doesn't need it stopped being misled by the marketing. At the moment they are shovelling it into a wheelbarrow after a short delay.
 
tallyho! said:
To REALLY balance out your forage and grass, you must test it first to see what you actually need AND what your horse finds easy/difficult to metabolise which will require blood and ursine tests.
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:eek: Any type of bear in particular? :D

I don't feed balancers - mine get a token ration of beet and plain oat straw chaff with micronized linseed and salt, and then ordinary grass and hay/haylage aside from that.
 
After recent articles from Dr David Ramey and Dr David Marlin, I am now scratching my head about the all singing, all dancing PE balancer I have been feeding for years :confused3:
 
HBB said:
After recent articles from Dr David Ramey and Dr David Marlin, I am now scratching my head about the all singing, all dancing PE balancer I have been feeding for years :confused3:
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Can you point us to them? I've never used one, I feed yeast, copper, zinc, salt and magnesium specifically to balance my land, but I'd be interested to read them.
 
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