Progressive Earth or Forage Plus

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Stenners

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What balancer does everyone recommend? I'm torn between the 2. I want something cost effective but going to give my horses everything they need. I have just finished Feedmark Original but it's quite pricey and will use again if needed (just comes in such a massive tub!) but have read good reviews on these others which look a bit cheaper. Ideally added gut supplements are a bonus which I believe the Feedmark Original does have.
 
60 days feedmark original. £43
50 days winter balancer forage plus £59
36 probably balance plus £48

These are the numbers I got?

Mine are on progressive earth as its the only thing I've found works for my barefoot pony.
My friend has hers on harbro own one scoop supplement and they look amazing on it.
 
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I use progressive earth pro hoof platinum - it is definitely not the most palatable but they do look so well on it. My fussy one has to have a handful of something molasses and bad to eat it - but I understand from a nutritionist that minerals do taste grim so maybe it's less full of fillers than other things.

Farrier, instructors, people at camp etc. always comment on coat condition, hoof quality
 
My 2 that generally eat most things shoved in front of them wouldn’t touch P.E. Really don’t know why, as it’s almost similar in nutrient profile to F.P., except P.E. Don’t add salt, as it can degrade the other minerals quicker.
With F.P. They gobbled as usual.
They seriously slowed down and threw the bowl around with P.E. Maybe I just had a bad batch but seems the forum here has had horses reject P.E too, while some eat it fine!

Equimins Advanced Complete Powder I really like for the nutrient profile, but it doesn’t have enough magnesium , so I added that on top.
I tried their pellet version but mine wouldn’t eat it - but they eat the powder mixed into speedibeet fine! I concluded the pelleting process can cause heating of the ingredients which would make a few nutrients, especially stinky B vitamins more unpalatable. But raw in the powder form, unheated, they ate that fine - the ingredients are the same in both pellet and powder form.

Mine did best on the Equimins than the others. I like the micro mineral profile in it that others seem to lack.
 
I use Progressive Earth Balance Basic.

At £25 ish for 3-ish months supply for my native, I find it cost effective 😊 He looks super on it too!
 
My fussy one preferred FP & theirs tend to be slightly higher spec when fed at same amount but if you’ve not got a particularly fussy horse PE tends to be cheaper (although they don’t offer subscribe & save whereas FP do)
 
I've been swapping between PE and FP. Currently on the PE Pro Balance plus which is much cheaper than the FP. Pony hates both of them and needs bribed with grass nuts.

I've done the more expensive PE blends for feet and skin (barefoot and sweet itch) and noticed no real difference so decided to save some pennies.
 
Used to use progressive earth , horses decided in summer they weren’t going eat anymore .

Have been using Dodson and horrell daily vits and mins as it’s tiny pellets and you hardly need any . Farrier asked if I changed anything as their hooves are so much better so I’m going to stick with it , so much cheaper also .
 
I use Progressive Earth a) they have good levels of the key minerals b) they don't add salt or linseed. I like to feed salt according to the amount of sweating the horse is doing, and not to have the risk of it degrading some other ingredients. I buy linseed by the sack, and feed a upwards of 200g/day, so it annoys me to pay to have it bulking out a balancer. I suppose it might increase palatibilty, but since I feed plenty of base mix to my thestral-tending TB's, it's not a problem. The TB-who-identifies-as-a-cob has a cob-like appetite, so no problem there either.
Apparently it's the copper which has a really strong taste/odour that som horses object to.
 
Thanks everyone! I'm open to other options too but these too seemed to sound quite popular on reviews! Equimins also comes up quite a bit - do lots of you use that too? I see lots about adding extra Vitamin E to their balancers? is that if the balancer isn't over a certain amount?
 
I had a nutritionist out a few months ago and she recommended 2 to go on pro earth Veteran, 2 on the Pro Earth hay boost and 2 on the Pro Earth youngster balancers. You have to feed a fair amount to get the recommended amounts, so isn’t super cheap, but less fillers etc. she thought it was the best spec to balance against my forage analysis and blood test results.

None of them are the progressive earth balancers well when we made the switch (from equivita and equimins) with just the Ulcer Lite chaff she recommended and they were wasting a lot. I now add it to 50g of soaked Fast Fibre each, along with any other supplements or meds and then a handful of Ulcer Lite chaff, and that seems to be going down well.

I do add extra vitamin E, but only because I have a horse that tests low on his blood serum levels. It would probably be cheaper to run a blood test for serum vitamin E and supplement accordingly, than just adding extra for the sake of it. If you have a balancer that provides approx 2000iu plus the horse has access to grass, my understanding is that that should be sufficient for most healthy horses.
 
I use progressive Earth lami balancer, and use their vitamin forage supplement too because mine has ems, Cushings and is on an all soaked hay diet. He looks very well on these at 25 and I know he’s not missing out on anything with such a restricted diet. I mix the powder in some soaked high fibre cubes and he eats it happily.
 
I use the Equimins AC pellets, mainly because the Forage Plus powder was ending up in the bottom of his bucket and getting left. He’s on livery so I need something easy to use that can be made up in advance. I haven’t noticed a difference in his condition so happy with the equimins.
 
I copied this down from a post Pete Ramey made a few years ago:

Lysine 10,000 iu
Vit A 15, 000 iu
Vit E 2,000+ iu more if no green grass
Cobalt 5mg
Threonine 5000mg
Methionine 3500mg
Iodine 3.5mg
Copper 300mg
Selenium 2mg or more if testing shows it's needed)
Zinc 750mg
Biotin 20mg
yeast 56 billion CFU
MgO 10mg min ( more if compromised)

Apparently the Cu/Se/Zn are the 3 most important, and it is surprising how often a mineral mix will come up short in one or more of these. Progressive Earth do a Pro 3 trace with just these, which mine did very well on.
 
Zoeypxo said:
Mine wont eat either.😡 she will eat hoof mender pellets but im not sure if they compare
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Mine neither. She ate both for a little while under sufferance but then rejected each one. I rejected Equimins AC myself as not quite happy with the mineral balance. Have a look at Equibalancer. Mine is now on their Meta-Trim and eats it no problem and it seems to suit her. I also feed her vitamin E oil.
 
Stenners said:
Thanks everyone! I'm open to other options too but these too seemed to sound quite popular on reviews! Equimins also comes up quite a bit - do lots of you use that too? I see lots about adding extra Vitamin E to their balancers? is that if the balancer isn't over a certain amount?
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Mine requires extra vit E as he is an EPM horse and there is not a lot of it in the grass in his field (I should really say 'grass' as it is that poor). So I add (a lot) more for him. I get my vit e usually from PE now but will sometimes get it from FP. I dont see a difference in effect from either.
 
Cragrat said:
I copied this down from a post Pete Ramey made a few years ago:

Lysine 10,000 iu
Vit A 15, 000 iu
Vit E 2,000+ iu more if no green grass
Cobalt 5mg
Threonine 5000mg
Methionine 3500mg
Iodine 3.5mg
Copper 300mg
Selenium 2mg or more if testing shows it's needed)
Zinc 750mg
Biotin 20mg
yeast 56 billion CFU
MgO 10mg min ( more if compromised)

Apparently the Cu/Se/Zn are the 3 most important, and it is surprising how often a mineral mix will come up short in one or more of these. Progressive Earth do a Pro 3 trace with just these, which mine did very well on.
Click to expand...
What is Cu/Se/Zn?

Se I'm guessing is selenium.
Zn might be zinc?
 
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