Formula for Feet - any alternatives..

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Scot123

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Hello, wondering if anyone had some good ideas :)

The pony I have 'inherited' his Formula feeding. His previous owner said she never really saw a difference on it but kept it up anyway (pony has VERY slow growing hooves).

As it's so expensive, I'm looking for an alternative. A general multi-vitamin/supplement that will provide something tasty in a bucket to encourage him to come over at evening feed time but with not much calorific value/sugar etc but with some bulk.

It doesn't necessarily have to be something specifically aimed at improving hooves, but just a multi-vitamin thing.

Is there anything like that at all? Thanks!
 
I switched from Farrier's Formula to Top Spec balancer for my mare who had terrible thoroughbred feet. Top spec had everything that Farrier's Formula had and more. I kept her on it all her life and never had problems with her feet on it but I daren't stop using it.

I can't remember how the costs compared but the Top Spec wasn't any more expensive.
 
I've fed formula for feet fora couple of year's and I think it has made a difference, although because of the cost I'm giving pure biotin a shot, bought It from a supplier on eBay who I use for mag-ox too and is much cheaper
 
Do you want a balancer that you can feed on its own or are you looking for a vit/min powder that you can feed in a handful of chaff?

I feed Equimins metabalance but you do need to mix it in something.
 
You say your pony has slow growing hooves but then contradict yourself by saying you would buy a multi vit supplement not aimed at hooves.
If you want to target his hooves a multi vitamin supplement will not do this. For this you would need to be looking at a biotin, methionine, lysine based supplement.
generally multi vit supplements is a poor way of targeting a horses requirments becasue it is not specific to an individual horses needs.
Therefore if you are not specifically trying to target anything but just want some feed in a bucket I would go with a low calorie chaff. Dengie do some specifically for those not wanting calories.
I'm pretty sure you can get low calorie fibre cubes as well.

\good luck
 
You could be describing the problem I have had trying to improve my mare's feet. Had her on F4F for nearly a year. Some improvement in hoof quality but still ridiculously slow growth rate, imagine 8 weeks between shoeing and still only need to be rasped lightly each time because of negligible growth!

4 months ago I changed to this:

http://www.trm-store.co.uk/buy-trm-...ypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=51&category_id=9

The difference in growth rate is incredible. She has been reshod 3 times since I started on it. My farrier is amazed at the difference - she is now in one size larger shoe (the correct size for her)and this last time he actually had to trim a good bit off hoof off. He remarked that the difference in hoof quality is equally amazing.

I'm sorry if I sound like an advert for this product! :o I can assure you I have no connection with the company but I am delighted by the difference it has made to my mare's hooves.:D
 
Hi - thanks for these answers and also the suggestions (are you sure you're not on commission?!:))

Maybe that is a bit of a contradiction on my part, but i suppose my view on equine supplements is similar to that on human vits & minerals ie that they are mainly sold to those with more money than anything else...

If you provide 100% of the rda of vits & mins, what real benefit will come to feeding extra, surely as in humans any extra is just secreted from the body (or stored leading to overdose)? But of course that may be very different with horses:confused:? So I would have thought providing a general vit/min supplement would have sufficed? And ingredients such as Biotin are just vitamins/amino acids that are in a lot of general purpose supplements anyway I think?

Though as you say, perhaps it is really a 'balancer' I am meaning - something that can be fed rather than just a powder added to a feed.

:confused: (again!)
 
grumpyoldmare said:
You could be describing the problem I have had trying to improve my mare's feet. Had her on F4F for nearly a year. Some improvement in hoof quality but still ridiculously slow growth rate, imagine 8 weeks between shoeing and still only need to be rasped lightly each time because of negligible growth!

4 months ago I changed to this:

http://www.trm-store.co.uk/buy-trm-...ypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=51&category_id=9

The difference in growth rate is incredible. She has been reshod 3 times since I started on it. My farrier is amazed at the difference - she is now in one size larger shoe (the correct size for her)and this last time he actually had to trim a good bit off hoof off. He remarked that the difference in hoof quality is equally amazing.

I'm sorry if I sound like an advert for this product! :o I can assure you I have no connection with the company but I am delighted by the difference it has made to my mare's hooves.:D
Click to expand...

how long does one pot last?
 
Sorry you get what you pay for . Formula4feet is gr8 stuff because it does what it say on the tin.

The other thing you can do is massage cronucrescine into the coronet every day for 10 mins.

Its down to the individual horses horn rate , what works for some may not be as effective on others .
 
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My mare had terrible feet with shoes coming off, the wall breaking up, hardly any growth etc and about two/three years ago our farrier suggested feeding her NAF pure biotin product. she has three scoops a day and it makes the difference between her feet breaking up and shoes staying on two weeks to lasting 6 (occasionally 8) weeks.

Biotin seems to be an active ingredient in most of the supplements sold for improving hooves so feeding the pure stuff seemed to make sense!
 
I had a TB mare with very slow growing hooves. I tried Formula4Feet and it did not work for us. I found by accident that by giving her haylage one winter, rather than hay, her feet began to grow. The following summer I started to give her Top Spec Balancer, her feet improved vastly, and there was the added benefit of reducing her hard feed even further, she only really had haylage and some chaff with the balancer, she looked fab and her feet were much, much better. She stopped losing shoes and having chipped, cracked feet.
 
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