Natural Horse Supplies instread of a balancer??

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Meeko

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As the title states - does anyone feed natural horse supplies herbs, mixes etc INSTEAD of a named/branded balancer?

I have just purchased some Agnus Castus from them and received a very interesting leaflet with everything they sell.

My mare is currently fed a baileys balancer, she has been on balancers (previously top spec) for the last 3 years when she got laminitis. She has soaked hay and is muzzled during the summer when on the grass, she has not had laminitis since (it was stress related )

So if i was to change her to one of their herbal packs, or make my own up which they also offer, would she still be getting all the vits and mins she needs?

I have emailed them and awaiting their reply, im just interested if anyone else uses these in place of a balancer

Thank you
 
I use Natural Horse Supplies and have often thought about creating a "bespoke" mix for my boy, but as yet I haven't. Right now he has magnesium but have also bought devil's claw and valerian from them in the past. I'm a bit nervous about some of it because he has prascend for his cushings and the odd danilon for his arthritis (as well as the devil's claw)
 
The trouble is that herbs are natural products and will contain a variable amount if vitamins and minerals. I just nosied at their hoof one which has rosehips and seaweed, not too familiar with the former but wouldn't be choosing to feed the latter as it is usually deemed too high in iodine.

(ps not anti plants, mine gets both milk thistle seed and boswellia currently)
 
I've used herbal horse supplies and am happy with them. But they don't pretend to replace a balancer. There are herbs - not specific vits & Mins. If you bare concerned about a specific deficiency you could probably source something to address that. But if you want a basic coverage then you'll have to stick with something specific.
 
I wouldn't do it. Your horse is on a pretty restricted diet (with more nutrients removed from soaking hay), and it's probably wise to give her a balancer to make sure she gets all her trace elements.

With few exceptions (such as seaweed, which is quite high in iodine), natural plants/herbs do not "collect" one specific nutrient at high concentrations, so that you might use it as a direct replacement for the (usually inorganic) ingredient used in a balancer. Most of them will have a low level of many different micronutrients, at varying concentrations, just like other forage. Considering that the entire daily amount of forage (let's say, about 8kg or so of hay for my 400kg horse) does not contain sufficient levels of copper and zinc naturally, how likely is it that another plant fed at a level of a few grams will contain enough of these minerals to make up the shortfall? Extremely unlikely, I'd say. And as pointed out above, you don't know the concentration of vits&mins in the herbs, so you'll have no way of checking how close you get to your target.
I think your chances are probably higher that you'll get decent levels of vitamins (C) from some of the herbs, but I don't think I'd want to rely on herbs for minerals.
 
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