Fat pony needs a balancer?

[Meredith]

Having read both old and recent threads re balancers and supplements I am, as a first time owner of a fat pony, ( owned a fair few poor and ordinary doers but never a fattie) now totally confused.

I have fed Equimins Advance Complete Powder for a few years to others and have about 1/2 a tub to use.

Pony was fully clipped 2 months ago and is strip grazed on foggage with soaked hay at night. He wears a no fill rug, sheet and head/ neck cover. He gets salt etc in a handful of Top Spec Zero.

As there now appears to be question marks against EA which balancer does HHO recommend I buy?
Thanks.

 

[PurBee]

For a fat pony in winter with hardly any grass intake , i would give a generic balancer, mixed grass meadow hay (no ryegrass, or maybe just 5% max in the mix), salt, water. i’d also give a teaspoon of mag ox extra., to help use up the excess calories he’s storing as fat. Then see how the fat shifts.

My mare is a ‘good doer’ she will put weight on easily, yet its only ‘uncontrollable’ whenever she’s been on hay/haylage with a high ryegrass content, cut early. That stuff just piles on the weight on her. Late cut its lower in sugars but still rocket fuel. It’s very high protein/sugars compared to other grasses, especially the tetraploid varities farmers like to grow and hay with. Diploid isnt so bad. But tetraploid ryegrass i call ‘sugar crack’ hay. Its great to use on a horse who’s a ‘poor doer’, or ones in daily work, but generally it will cause easy weight gain on many ‘leisure’ horses.
Even my younger gelding with higher metabolism than the mare will put on weight with ryegrass heavy hay/lage - just takes him longer than the mare.
With the hay industry mainly supplied by a lot of cow farmers, there’s a lot of tetra. Ryegrass in hay mixes now.

Only by understanding grass and hay did i manage to manage my horses weights better. I thought it was all generically the same and was buying any hay, not realising the huge differences.
Also, soaking hay will soak away some nutrients needed alongside excess sugars, so definitely a good all round supplemental balancer is needed. If you find a good mixed traditional meadow hay you wont need to soak it. Im about to receive an import of mixed meadow hay 6% sugar and protein levels, so good hay for fatty horses is out there.

 

[Meredith]

Thanks.
It is meadow hay but I don’t know it’s sugar and protein. The farmer grows for horses, he offered me his best ‘ rocket fuel’ which I declined!
Pony is getting mag ox with the AC but only because I had both left from previous pony. I will continue with mag ox.
I know soaking removes nutrients and sugars hence my question for a specific balancer.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Having had mine on various of the top end Forageplus and Progressive Earth balancers, I now have them all on Progressive Earth Pro Balance+.

A good basic spec, and most importantly the neds are all doing very well on it.

https://progressive-earth.com/produ...erals-and-amino-acids-commonly-low-in-forage/

 

[outdoor girl]

My good doer mare is out all day (no matter what the weather throws at us) and in at night all year round. She's on Baileys No14 - Lo Cal Balancer with some Hi Fi Lite and about 5 kg. of haylage. This balancer was recommended to me by my vet as suitable for her type - chunky cob of about 15hh. The amount of balancer fed stays the same all year round but the amount of Hi Fi and haylage reduce as the grass comes through. Hope this helps a bit OP.

 

[Gloi]

What's the problem with the Equimins advance?

 

[Meredith]

There has been some discussion about excess iron in supplements and balancers.
Also another thread about Equimins ingredients.

 

[Meredith]

Having had mine on various of the top end Forageplus and Progressive Earth balancers, I now have them all on Progressive Earth Pro Balance+.

A good basic spec, and most importantly the neds are all doing very well on it.

https://progressive-earth.com/produ...erals-and-amino-acids-commonly-low-in-forage/

Thank you.
I will have a look.

 

[Griffin]

My good doer mare has been on Spiller Lite + Lean balancer with Thunderbrooks chaff for a few years now. We have tried other balancers for fatties over the years (Equimins, Progressive Earth, Simple Systems) but she seems happiest, healthiest and has the most even temperament on Spillers. I also like it that it that she actually eats it, whereas some of the others she was not keen!

 

[HollyWoozle]

We also use the Spillers Lite & Lean for our chubby pony with EMS. Our others are on different Spillers balancers (the daily balancer and the senior one) and they all love them.

 

[Nudibranch]

Mine (one EMS, both good doer large natives) get Pro Earth PB+, salt and a handful of micronised linseed. They look/behave pretty well on it. No hay in winter unless the ground is covered by snow and even then I swap some out for chaff.

 

[JennBags]

I've been wondering this too. Progressive Earth looks high in iron line there is so much choice, I've no idea where to start.. Pre Equimins I used to use Alltech Lifeforce but it seems to not be sold in the UK now which is a shame as I was very happy with it and I don't know where to turn now.

 

[Meredith]

I've been wondering this too. Progressive Earth looks high in iron line there is so much choice, I've no idea where to start.. Pre Equimins I used to use Alltech Lifeforce but it seems to not be sold in the UK now which is a shame as I was very happy with it and I don't know where to turn now.

Yes, blinded by science so that I am unable to compare.
Hoping for help from more HHO’ers

 

[Nudibranch]

Progressive Earth doesnt have any iron, which is why it's one of the better ones.

 

[JennBags]

Progressive Earth doesnt have any iron, which is why it's one of the better ones.

Not according to another post, I'll see if I can find it.

 

[JennBags]

thus was the post I saw
https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/...heet-equimins-ac-vs-forage-plus.797829/page-2

 

[JennBags]

Forage plus seems to be getting good reviews and has good ingredients.
I've tried science supplements in the past and didn't find it helped my horse, his coat went dull when he was on it.

 

[SO1]

My fatty new forest is on feedmark slimaid balancer - it does have iron it though

https://www.feedmark.com/en/slimaid-2

 

[Nudibranch]

I'd be interested to know how old the FP comparison is because PE do not list any iron in their supplements.

 

[JennBags]

I'd be interested to know how old the FP comparison is because PE do not list any iron in their supplements.

Follow the link that Reacher posted, it gives you all the details and says his Pro Earth say there's no ADDED iron, but that doesn't mean there isn't iron innthr other ingredients which is the issue I think

 

[Meredith]

Follow the link that Reacher posted, it gives you all the details and says his Pro Earth say there's no ADDED iron, but that doesn't mean there isn't iron innthr other ingredients which is the issue I think

I think the PE product tested by FP was the Hoof version not the Pro Balance.
Are all PE products similar?
I am more confused now.

 

[JennBags]

I think the PE product said there was no iron but the forage plus testing showed there was, so which product is almost irrelevant as it one says there's no iron and there is, then another may be the same.
I think I might try the forage plus and see how we get on.

 

[Carlosmum]

My gelding was diagnosed with EMS in 2019. Had him on metformin for most of last year and he lost a fair bit of weight. Clipped him out in October, then stopped ridding ( circumstances) and stopped additional bucket feed. Currently he is on meadow hay, unrugged turnout for approx 5 -7 hrs, occasional work. He has never looked so well. He has a salt block, and once we start back into regular work I will begin feeding again.

 

[WispyBegs]

I would definitely recommend spillers lite and lean balancer - it suits my boy who’s a good doer really well, it doesn’t break the bank either!

 

[vhf]

Mine do consistently well on Equimins products, especially the fatty after a few years of trying other products (many as above). For now, I will stay with Equimins but will watch what happens. I don't want to rock the boat on my horses' wellbeing for the sake of someone else's poor decision-making skills - but I am not keen to support deliberate bad behaviour either.

 

[JennBags]

You see, mine doesn't do particularly well or particularly badly on Equimins, the only balancer that I've found actually made a difference was Alltech Lifeforce, but as I mentioned above, I can't get it anymore.
Spillers don't seem to do a powder balancer any more.

 

[Nudibranch]

PE don't list any ingredients which could contain iron in PB and so on so I can't see where FP are getting their data from. In all honesty would I trust an analysis from most likely their main competitor? I'm not sure.

 

[Meredith]

PE don't list any ingredients which could contain iron in PB and so on so I can't see where FP are getting their data from. In all honesty would I trust an analysis from most likely their main competitor? I'm not sure.

I share your caution about the FP analysis too Nudibranch.
However I think that it shows that other ingredients may have an effect on the mineral content of the whole balancer.

 

[PapaverFollis]

They sent samples to an independent lab for analysis.

https://forageplus.co.uk/iron-in-horse-feed-balancers/

The iron is not being deliberately added but it sounds like it can be present in the sources of other minerals and "filler" ingredients.

 

[Meredith]

They sent samples to an independent lab for analysis.

https://forageplus.co.uk/iron-in-horse-feed-balancers/

The iron is not being deliberately added but it sounds like it can be present in the sources of other minerals and "filler" ingredients.

Yes I agree.