Feeding Dilemma - opinion's please!

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Jazzy B

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We recently had top spec out at my yard. I've been feeding the cool balancer for the last 10 months, and its suited him fine having been a bit porky when I got him and now through the summer but he will need a little bit more to get him through the winter being the slightly wimpy TB more than ID he is. However, having looked into the products top spec recommended i.e. being comprehensive balancer, conditioning cubes and alfa alfa this would cost me £59.15!!! Now I know I'm not going to run out of all three at the same time, but this does seem slightly insane! I used to feed my pony a scoop of nuts every day and she lived to the ripe old age of 27!

Is this completely normal and I need to get with the times? Accept that he actually looks okay on what his being feed, and get on with it? What are people's general opinions on balancers? I'm just curious as I still really don't understand as to what I'm balancing it with? How do I know his having everything he needs, I've not had my hay or grazing analysed so how do I know what I'm balancing against?? Does anyone feed straights anymore? There is just so much choice and I really don't know what to do for the best! Opinion's please before I end up spending the afternoon at my local feed merchants comparing everything.... :D
 
There's a lot of money to be made in convincing people that they need expensive feeds and supplements. If he's doing fine on what you're feeding him then stay with that.

Paula
 
Beware sales reps dressed as 'nutritionists!'

Seen it so many times before.....they come to the yard and do 'free nutritional analysis' on each horse, the upshot of which is that they tell you they need the most expensive combination of their products that they can think up :)
Because they are a 'nutritionist' and very convincing, you understandably believe them. Sorry to sound cynical but seem it too many times!

Bet she told you that under his current feeding plan he was lacking in some important vitamin or mineral??

If he looks fine on what you already feed him, stick to what you know.

If he starts looking poor and you think he might need something else, ask a few impartial people, YO, instructors, even on here, then make an informed decision based on the opinions you get.

You sound like a v caring owner though, he is lucky to have you!

But please don't be conned by a sales rep!

:D
 
Ps for interests sake, I feed straights. Mine usually get barley and sugar beet in winter with Blue Chip original if they're looking poor. If they're still looking poor I get them blood tested to see of they are actually lacking in anything, which is really the only way to know.

Different for youngsters/out of work etc but the above system works for me and is not expensive.
I think feeding can be kept very simple.

Eta if the horse is lacking in something it is usually down to the forage so having your soil and hay analysed is a good idea.

:)
 
You had a native pony, and it did fine on a scoop of pony nuts, that is normal.
Now you have a tbxID which is probably in light work, You need to feed minerals and vitamins for overall health and good feet, this is in the balancer. You want to add something to keep weight on in winter and have a bit of more oomph, so this is why the others have been recommended.
I feed from September to April for a bit extra condition rather than wait till the summer condition is lost. I want the horse to come in to winter with more condition than he has in April when preparing for spring grass, when he should be slim, even ribby.
I don't disagree with Top Spec recommendations, when I was feeding conventionally I only used branded feeds as the horse lost that sparkle after two weeks on own brand pony nuts.
I currently feed the barefoot diet which is fibre based plus added vits and minerals plus micronised linseed meal, this works too, and every 100 days I have to fork out £40-50 for linseed and minerals. This is in addition to his base feed [ie your balancing feed] My horse is spooky and never gets molasses, in any form including moglo, most bagged feeds contain molasses.
The balancing feed is to provide essential vitamins and minerals which are missing in the forage ie grass , hay and or haylage.
Most companies tend to have rather high feed recommendations, but the trouble is that the feeds don't have enough mins and vits unless fed at daily recommended rates.
You can continue with the balancer and add some molassed sugar beet pulp plus cheap molassed chaff in winter if you want to save money, it depends how much work you are doing, most horses don't do very much work in winter so are not drawing on their reserves. If you are competing or if he does not look great then go with the recommendations.
Personally I would buy the extra stuff, feed balancer as recommended, but less of the other, start in September. I assume you told her you wanted more winter condition and more oomph.
 
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The idea with balancers is that they concentrate the vit/mins and protein that it is thought the horse needs into a small amount of feed. With normal cubes those nutrients are spread throughout a bigger amount of feed, so you may have to feed, say, 3kg of cubes to get the same amount of vit/mins that are in 500g of balancer. But you are right that the nutrients contained in balancers are just a 'guess' at what the average horse needs, as the manufacturers cannot know what other feeds, forage and grazing the horse is getting. If you want to be more precise you will need to go down the route of forage/grazing analysis and tailor your supplementation accordingly.

Most balancers also contain probiotic yeasts which help to maintain optimum conditions in the gut for the digestion of fibre, which is why they can help in increasing a horse's condition.

One advantage of balancers is that it is easy to feed flexibly according to the horse's condition. You can just feed the balancer on its own if condition is good, but you can slowly introduce unsupplemented feedstuffs such as high calorie chaffs, beet etc if condition starts to drop. You can also feed cereal straights such as oats or barley alongside a balancer if you wish.

If your horse is doing well on the Cool Balancer then I would suggest you stick to that for now and start to introduce some unmollassed beet and/or grass nuts/grass chaff alongside it, if and when his condition starts to drop off.

And obviously as much adlib good quality hay/haylage as he will eat if you want him to keep his weight on. Good quality forage is much more cost effective than bucket feed in terms of weight gain.
 
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So what is it you are trying to balance?

If he gets enough from forage (D&H can test this for you for £10) then what is the point? If it's only one thing or another, then a mineral lick is all thats needed.

If condition is all you need, calories from beet pulp, alfalfa with some fats like linseed or sunflower oil is really all you need. Add oats/barley accordingly. Not too much, that is when you get the fizz. Add it slowly in increasing amounts and watch. If he gets fizzy then reduce.

To be fair, most branded feeds contain the above in varying amounts with added soya and yea-sacc/brewers yeast/herbs which you can buy seperately. At least then you can add and take away as needed. With balancers, it is all premixed so when you hit a dietary snag, you have to chuck the whole lot away.
 
thanks for your thoughts everyone - I think I'km going to stay as we are for the minute and do a bit more research....:)
 
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