Meta balance/pro hoof/pro balance/forage plus - WHY did you chose that particular one

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zoon

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I have low magnesium and copper in my soil - haven't had it tested, but know from local farmers, so it makes sense to use one of these supplements for my unshod horses. But I don't know what one to chose! So, I want to know WHY people chose the one they use over all the others?

I currently use equimins meta balance as it contains all the vits/mins, but the others are more limited. But tbh, I am not seeing any difference, so maybe I should save my pennies or maybe I should try another type?
 
How long have you been feeding it for?

I chose the Forage Plus Hoof Health balancers, as imo you really can't beat the spec. Hoof growth since starting it is tighter than ever :).
 
Have had horse for 7 years now, most of that without shoes. He has never had great feet - his hoof shape (when shod) was mentioned on the vetting. He has had fairly frequent abscesses over that time (starting off when shod but continuing after shoes removed).

First of all, he was fed mag ox and Equimins Hoof Mender (the other supplements weren't available at that stage). His feet did improve a bit with this, but he still got the occasional abscess and he had permanent thrush and deep central sulci on all 4 hooves.

About two/three years ago, I started feeding ProHoof. Again, a noticeable improvement, but still thrush. This time last year, he got a very large and painful abscess on front hoof that took weeks to clear. It seemed to heal, and then flared up again in December. At this point, I changed over to the ForagePlus Performance Winter Balancer - on the basis that it had the highest levels of copper and zinc I could get, plus lysine etc. Added extra Vitamin E, plus salt.

Fed this for two months, then changed over to the Summer Balancer, still adding Vit E, salt and bicarb.

The thrush is gone. The central sulci on all four hooves have healed and closed up. The hoof affected by the abscess still looks very wonky, but I think in another two months, it will have grown down.

On the basis of the huge difference between ProHoof and the ForagePlus, I've had the grass minerals analysed, and once I have the results, I'll be tailoring my own minerals etc. I probably should have done this ages ago - the thrush and all the abscesses should have given enough clues that something was wrong with the grazing! I just kept thinking it was grass sugars - but he's not that sensitive to sugars (he lives with a mare who is very sensitive, so I can see the changes in her hooves, while his don't get growth rings). On top of this, had a regular physio visit last week, and she was commenting that his topline looks the best it ever has.

So that's why :D I hope whatever's working continues to work (and that I can fine tune even further once I know what's in the grass...). Hope that helps!
 
I do my own balanced minerals.

However I did a spreadsheet comparing all the forageplus and pro hoof versions.

This is a simplification as there are other differences even within the brands.

Very roughly the FP balancers have twice the levels of key minerals, however they are at similar proportions and fp almost twice the price so in theory you play around with the dosage. The only issue was selenium which was at the same level in both so if you doubled the prohoof you would need to be careful that you weren't too high on this as it is one of the things that you can OD on.

Couldn't add metabalance to the comparison as didn't have the spec, both Forageplus and Progressive Earth are brilliant at making the information of what it contains really easy to find and check from the website/ebay shop.
 
They've had it for about 6 months. Farrier says feet are very good, as does Lucy priory who has seen them most recently, but there is a little thrush that just won't go away.

Am thinking of just getting forage analysed. Can I get away with just hay or should I do grass too? I get my hay from a farm just down the road.
 
I went with the ForagePlus Performance Balancer as it was the best fit for my hay analysis. Definitely it has set my horse up in a whole new healthier direction, she looks fantastic on it.
 
zoon said:
Am thinking of just getting forage analysed. Can I get away with just hay or should I do grass too? I get my hay from a farm just down the road.
Click to expand...

Everyone's situation is different but I just went for just grass as that is the consistent part of their diet.

1) My horses have daily turnout so it accounts for at least half their diet
2) Hay supplier might change, (we had a farm over the road all winter but they have run out so are using someone different)
3) Even with the same supplier you don't know which field it is from and that could cover a huge area. You are supposed to take a sample from several bales but that only really works if you looking at the whole crop and can walk around taking samples from everywhere. Your supplier might deliver say 50 bales that in reality have come from the same patch but next week deliver some that is from somewhere else entirely.
4) If you use bagged haylage or similar it is made under licence and could be from anywhere.

On the other hand if horses are mostly stabled or kept off the grass then it is a smaller part of their diet so the hay is more relevant.
 
Mine lives out 24/7 - gets supplementary hay December to April. So I just got grass analysed (and we have a natural spring in the field, so got that analysed too).

I think I'd go on what they were eating most of... and if it's 50/50 hay/grass, I think I'd probably get both done (assuming you know your hay all comes from the same fields...).
 
I use forage plus hoof health balancer now. Have used their winter balancer and performance one before they produced the hoof health one. I get hay from various sources and one horse with long term problems so went for the higher spec but also wanted the lysine etc. I am thrilled with the hoof health balancer in 4 months even more positive changes are happening. I would prefer to have hay analysed but it isn't possible due to various supplies so it's my best guess going by response. I add salt along with linseed when not grazing.

Sarah was my trimmer years ago and I know and trust her so that's part of the reason I chose FP. :)
 
This is actually really interesting for me, as I've used Pro Hoof and Pro Balance and whilst my horses feet are excellent and they are fed low sugar/starch, out and night, in during the day and have exercise etc, I can't help thinking the TB is just lacking something. So I ordered the Forageplus summer hoof balancer about half an hour ago. I'm looking forward to seeing whether there will be any difference in their feet. :)
 
I haven't had my forage analysed - haven't got a truly consistent hay supply, so it would be pointless. I started off with Equimins Meta Balance mainly as it fell between the specs of the other two - the service is fabulous and I saw a big difference.

I've since changed to Pro-balance and there certainly hasn't been any deterioration.

They're looking much better since being off commercial balancers :)
 
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