SmartHorse Nutrition

BethH

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Hi

Has anyone used these feeds before - I am quite interested in trying the smart balance as the specification looks quite comprehensive and it will save me faffing around with loads of different supplements. I'm currently using Progressive Earth Pro-mineral, lysine, methionine & Brewers yeast which i'm mixing into some Agrobs chaff & charnwood linseed.

He is looking in really good health and is now sound and being lightly ridden, but he is still lacking ooomph & is a bit lethargic ridden (not when playing in the field!) He is 18 this year. It's probably his hocks feeling a bit touchy, especially given the weather, but the supplements he is getting do seem to have made him less stiff this winter. I want him to get at least what he is already getting but a bit of calm energy would also be nice!
 

supsup

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It does look like a pretty decent balancer. But probably not the most economical (a 20kg bag costs 29.95, unless you order a lot of them in one go, and feed rate is about 500g/day for a 500kg horse. Works out at 75p/day). Copper and zinc levels would also be lower than in your current supplement. I might consider Equimins advance complete powder as an alternative. It is similarly comprehensive to the smart balance, but has higher copper/zinc levels per dose, and works out at about 68p/day (if you buy a 4kg bucket). Only drawback is IMO that magnesium levels are too low (but then, I'd say the same of the smart balance). I currently feed the Equimins AC with added MagOx - not too much faff, but also not a one-stop shop.

If you prefer the ease of just a pellet, I'd say the smart balance doesn't look bad at all on specs. Though I suspect that if you have an older horse that is sometimes stiff, you'd want to keep up the linseed in addition.
 

BethH

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As always Supsup very helpful. I'd never heard of it before and it popped up on my facebook. It's the first one I've seen that seems to cover everything I want. Pricewise it end up working out slightly cheaper than the Pro Earth stuff as they charge so much for postage. Am curious to see if anyone has used it, as after my very bad experience with a popular small feed company resulting in huge vet bills, I am slightly scared to order without a recommendation!! I'll gop have another look at the equimins advance, can't remember why I didn't go with it before as itwas recommended to me.
 

supsup

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If you're not too worried about price and want the safety of a well-known brand, you could have another look at the Spillers balancer range too. They've recently redone the range, and now leave out iron. Copper/zinc levels are still on the lower side, but not much lower than the smarthorse one. The "original multi balancer" is pretty complete (lysine/methonine, biotin, pretty long list of vits, yeast), though no cheaper than the smarthorse (85p/day). Their daily balancer is one of the cheapest on the market (57p/day), but doesn't have all the extras. (Annoyingly, the webpage doesn't seem to have the full list of ingredients on it, and you really need to look at the white label at the feed store to get the full picture.)
If you go with the smarthorse, do report back! I always like to hear about new products ;-)
 

ester

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Not one I've come across yet either.

Fwiw I too use the equimins and add magnesium. (it does come in pellet and powder)
 

Auslander

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Not one I've come across yet either.

Fwiw I too use the equimins and add magnesium. (it does come in pellet and powder)

Does the powder smell less brewers yeast=y than the pellets? I've got one here on the pellets, but she really doesn't like it. She'll eat it very grudgingly if she's got another horse trying to help her, but the look of disgust on her face is something to behold. If she's eating alone, she won't touch it! Alf, Spotty and Ted are on D&H Ultimate Balancer - which goes down a treat, and they are all looking and feeling great at the moment.
 

supsup

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Mine absolutely hated the taste of the pellets, but is fine with the powder. The powder has a different smell, slightly minty, and much less intense than the pellets. I could only get the pellets into my boy after either soaking or pulverizing them, and mixing them into feed to dilute and disguise the taste. Totally defeated the purpose (for me) of going with a pellets that could be fed "neat". No problems with the powder.
 

Charlie31

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I use it! My horse has been on it since about October/November. I first went over to it as I was feeding a separate hoof supplement and I wanted to get something that had the hoof supplement built in but that also did not contain molasses. I did loads of loads of research and looked at different options, compared the spec to whatever the horsey guidelines are called (I can't remember now but did look at the report and the daily recommendations), and this one I thought was spot on.

My main worries were my horse having a reaction to it (he suffers from random allergies) or him turning into a loony as he can be a bit that way at times. So the opposite to what you want energy-wise but he has plenty of energy without being too silly and seems generally well on it. His coat looks nice too, although I did start adding micronised linseed at about the same time so it may also have been because of that.

Where I live they won't post it out to me because there is a stockist about a half hour's drive away so I have to go there to pick it up, which is a bit of a pain. I do worry about them suddenly stopping producing it because it is a small firm but the stuff is actually manufactured by Hay & Brecon Farmers which is a bigger company so hopefully if enough people use it it will carry on.

I don't think my horse likes it as much as he did his Lo Cal, presumably because of it not having molasses in it, but he does eat it all up.

I did also look at the Equimins balancer but it's quite high in selenium and that is high in the soil in our area so I didn't want to risk it. I ordered some other stuff from Equimins though and it came very quickly.
 

mega spoilt ponies

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brillant in theory - i met with smart horse nutrition guy. quite expensive but i was very excited about it, however, horse ate it for a week then would not entertain touching it 😞. The only other one I cant get him to touch is Equimins AC pellets - but then opening the tub makes me heave so I can't blame him!
I've had to stick with pure feeds as the 'cleanest' feed (no molasses/no alfalfa) that mine will eat, although the wheatfeed isn't ideal.
 

Charlie31

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brillant in theory - i met with smart horse nutrition guy. quite expensive but i was very excited about it, however, horse ate it for a week then would not entertain touching it ��. The only other one I cant get him to touch is Equimins AC pellets - but then opening the tub makes me heave so I can't blame him!
I've had to stick with pure feeds as the 'cleanest' feed (no molasses/no alfalfa) that mine will eat, although the wheatfeed isn't ideal.

Mine does eat it now but I do worry that come the summer time he won't be interested. This is the difficulty with trying to feed more healthy feeds, they obviously taste really boring! I spent ages researching and choosing this option so I guess I'll see how I get on and it'll be back to the drawing board if he goes off it.
 
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