feed gurus... feet help

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Charlie007

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My new Tb has okish feet but I would like to feed gum a balancer or something to help his feet grow. He has a definate line I guess from where he finished racing to when he was turned out for 6 months. The new growth looks lovely and healthy. His toes are long and the farrier will be addressing this over time. He is a fussy eater but he will eat fibre nuts. Any suggestions what to feed to help his feet please?
 
Look at the Equivita balancer. You can get a few different blends depending what you need to cover but the basic one is no iron and high in all the good stuff. I have my 3 barefoot Tb's on it and not only do they have great feet they are fat, shiny, gaining muscle and doing incredibly well.

I feed the one with extra yea saac and Mycosorb for their gut health too - very impressed with it.
 
I would recommend that you start with a horse-appropriate basic diet (plenty of forage, low in sugar and starch) and then make sure that you are supplying sufficient quality protein (aka essential amino acids) and micronutrients (vits and mins). Most balancers aim to do just this - they contain vits, mins and essential amino acids. The balancer plus quality forage should be a good start, if your horse doesn't need extra calories.
If you feed a fortified bucket feed (such as the fibre nuts) then this will also supply vits and mins, but your horse won't get the full dose unless you feed the nuts at the recommended amounts, and IME few people do that. So I would probably still stick with feeding a balancer.

Now, the choice of balancer is where people's opinions start to diverge. IMO, many off-the-shelf balancers contain minerals at levels and in proportions that are not ideal for most horses fed on UK forage. Some of the more specialist supplements (pro hoof, forageplus, or the Equivita above) have better ratios but are also often pretty unpalatable because they are basic powders without filler, rather than a pelleted formula that is more tasty. If you have a picky eater, you may struggle trying to feed one of those.
To support hoof health in particular, you should look for a product that supplies at least the daily recommended amount of zinc and copper, preferably with little/no added iron. Some studies show that biotin is beneficial, but a fibre-fed horse with a healthy gut should be able to get plenty of biotin from its diet as it is. So this may or may not be a good investment.
Just read the labels, and if you can, get a taste sample from the feed supplier before you commit to buying a whole bag (only to find that your horse doesn't like it).
 
equimins advanced complete is iron free and comes both powdered and pelleted and I know a fair few barefooters who get on well with it- I have a fussy one, and add more Mag as we have super high calcium round here (when he lets me he gets extra phosphorous too but ;) ).
 
Thank you for your suggestions. He is already on a fibre only diet, with a token handful of nuts. I will look into products suggested. Thank you x
 
Spillers T.E.N. daily balancer is another (powder) one without added iron and with decent copper/zinc. I'd recommend a taste test for the Equimins pelleted balancer too. It has a quite a strong smell, which may or may not be an issue for a fussy eater.
 
yup, banana ish, they will happily send you some though :). F actually seems to prefer the powder atm!
 
I highly recommend pro balance and pro hoof (you'll find them on ebay). My horses don't find any problem with the taste, I disguise it in a bit of speedi beet and linseed.
 
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