Feeding advice. Again!

[Ambers Echo]

Amber and Dolly have all been on Pink Mash and forage plus balancer for ages and I like it. Deedee came on no hard feed to we just kept her on ad lib haylage but she was losing weight with the stressing so we added in pink mash for her too.

She's been spooky in the ground and in the stable but good under saddle but now she's bucking ridden too and seems very fresh! Not sure the mash is helping.

The balancer (a powder) kept going mouldy before I finished it so this time I've bought NAAF Optimum Plus balancer - pellets.

https://www.naf-equine.eu/uk/balancer/optimum

So my questions: what feed can I try for Deedee if PM is sending her a bit over the top. Is the balancer I am on ok? If not what needs adding in?

Or should I just go back to haylage only/keep her on Pink Mash and then move her and see how she goes at the new place first. As if I change her yard and her feed at the same time I won't know what has helped.

TIA.

 

[spacefaer]

I love Equerry Conditioning Mash. Puts condition on like nothing else without adding any fizz. It's a complete feed . doesn't need a balancer so cost effective too!

 

[Leo Walker]

The balancer is pretty poor,if you want pellets I'd switch to Equimins Advance Complete. Cheaper than forage plus by quite a bit, but still a good spec.

Feed wise some horses can react to soya. I've never had one react to pink mash, but its definitely a possibility.I'd move her first though and then see. If ti continues then I'd just swap her onto a token handful of grass nuts or speedi beet etc. Something to carry the supplement and give her a token feed

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I wouldn't give her NAF products, they caused our ridden horses to be very 'unsettled' and made them footy too! We were using Haylage Balancer/PinkPowder until we checked the ingredients!

 

[Ambers Echo]

Thanks. I've ordered some Equimins. How do you all know which are good and which are not? They all sound good on paper and I can't evaluate one brand from another.

 

[Flamenco]

I made a spreadsheet by researching how much a 500kg horse needs and the soil profile for my local area. Then looked at the analysis for various balancers and vitamins. You can then compare what's in each serving, against their needs.

Most are lower than the horse needs, but as we can't easily compare them, we are forced to buy expensive supplements...

Progressive Earth Pro Balance + or Thunderbrooks daily essentials are best match and value for us. Equi mins advance complete is better than many of the others but wasn't best match for our soil profile.

Happy to share the spreadsheet, PM me if you'd like me to send you this.

 

[SEL]

I've never had a horse react to kwik beet / speedi beet so that's always a good base (I'm sure there are horses but it's less common than alfalfa or soya)

Sometimes it's worth leaving out the balancer too and only adding it in when you've got a baseline of good behaviour, so you can assure yourself that isn't the problem. My pssm mare can't tolerate any of the FP balancers.

 

[TGM]

To be honest, unless she is losing an awful amount of weight I'd go back to no hard feed for a while, to see whether that makes a difference, before trying different feeds.