Feed balencers

[toppy72]

Hi all can anyone explain to me in words of one syllable what exactly a feed balencer is, how it works and what is a good one.

My mare is currently in heavy work hunting one to two times per week and she has dropped a bit of weight recently, I am reluctant to just keep pushing conditioning cubes etc in in ever increasing amounts as she does get quite "hot".

If using a feed balencer whart sort of feeding regimes do any of you suggest.

Have just moved her from hay on to haylage.

 

[Oberon]

Natural equine diet in the wild = grasses and plants from far and wide, where they roam so more chance of getting all the minerals they need from the various sources.

Domestic equine diet = same fields all year, on stressed grass (high in sugar) and hay/haylage from same fields. Mineral imbalance will be consistent as they only get food from same source.

Feed balancer = mixture of minerals to try and address the balance.

Problem is that unless you know what is missing from your forage, it's like trying to bake a cake without know the exact ingredients. Sometimes you'll get lucky and get a nice cake. Sometimes you'll get mush.

This is why every person on every different yard will swear by a different feed.

The best way is to have the forage tested and then fill in the gaps (it's like the old days of feeding straights but with a new, scientific twist) so you save money and feed only what the horse needs.

Not everyone can do this, so they can use a generic balancer and do the best they can.

Most of them are not even nearly compatible with UK's forage. But there are a couple out there now that are worth the money.

I like to use something 'neutral' to use as a base for the balancer (Fast Fibre/unmolassed beet/hay chaff/oat chaff) to help keep it all in balance.