Feed balancer or multivitamin supplement?

HaffiesRock

HaffiesRock

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I have a 14hh Haflinger gelding. Typical very good doer and fed a fiber only diet. On rough grazing (24/7) with a bit of supplementary hay (last year’s so low quality) and a feed of sloppy fast fiber, with a scoop of low sugar chaff for variety.

Been out of work since early November and about to come back into work this week.

Now spring and the show season are on the way, I’d like to get him fit and healthy and add a bit of sparkle to him. Rough grazing, old hay and fast fiber are not the most vitamin rich feeds!

I have used both Baileys low cal balancer and Naf Multivitamin powder with great results on my old mare. What would you all suggest? I need it to be cost effective and either way I’ll be sticking with the fast fiber as it means I can get a good 3 liters of water into him at the same time and I like to make sure he’s hydrated.

So am I best getting the low cal balancer to add to this (instead of the chaff) or just add the multivitamin to the fast fiber? Ideally I’d like to get the chaff out of the equation all together as he is barefoot so I like to keep his diet as sugar free as possible.

Any suggestions appreciated. xx
 
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I found even lo-cal balancer put weight on my good doer. I'd stick to the powdered stuff. Do you need to add to fast fibre? I thought it had vit and mins already? THough if you fed the recommended amount it would fill a whole bucket! I often supplement mine with equibites in the summer, with a tiny amount of chaff as a token feed.
 
I've always used powders before but put my mare on a balancer as she's pregnant and she looks brilliant on it - she's going to be staying on a balancer of some sort even once the foal's weaned. I didn't find it put any weight on her and she's an extremely good doer.
 
I'd use a good quality mineral balancer such as pro balance + from progressive earth. Horses don't typically require vitamins added to the diet; a healthy horse ought to be able to produce sufficient vitamins without supplementation.
 
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