Those with multiple horses

[spotty_pony2]

equimins tip top supplement is about £23 for a tub and is a super concentrated balancer which comes in pellet form. It’s much more cost effective and lasts a lot longer than a normal balancer.

 

[SEL]

equimins tip top supplement is about £23 for a tub and is a super concentrated balancer which comes in pellet form. It’s much more cost effective and lasts a lot longer than a normal balancer.

Does it smell odd? I recently had a short dated tub of their hoof mender and I thought with 3 I'd easily get through it before the expiry date but only one would eat it !

 

[AutumnDays]

Does it smell odd? I recently had a short dated tub of their hoof mender and I thought with 3 I'd easily get through it before the expiry date but only one would eat it !

I was looking at this and the hoof mender last night, and saw on previous threads people saying their horses wouldn't eat it! Potential save there

 

[whirlwind]

Mine won’t eat the powders (have tried forage plus and progressive earth) but are happy to scoff both the Equimins hoof mender or the advance concentrate complete one straight out of my hand. I have 8 currently at mine, 2 are livery’s so their owner gets their feed if needed. The old mare gets a big bucket of slop twice a day as her teeth aren’t great now and I feed all the others a half measure or the Equimins. They’re out on a big field with lots of hedges, have ad-lib decent but not amazing round bale hay netted and then a portion each of first cut really nice stuff in the mornings made from different fields so I’m fairly confident they are getting enough vits and mins. They also always have salt licks and Rockies magnesium licks in the shelters.

What I like about the Equimins is the palatability and small portions as I can go round and give them all a handful out of my pocket so don’t have to catch/ try to do individual buckets for those that don’t need it. When I ride I put the Equimins in a small scoop of the old ponies food as a litte thank you in a bucket but don’t need to do it for all.

 

[dorsetladette]

Overstocking certainly wrecks it (not a problem for me, though ) and I do wonder if poo picking is really the best thing for the soil. More cross grazing would help but I don't have that option ATM.

Our land was originally a farm yard paddock (about 5 acres nearest the farm yard). Then the farm was turned into a business park, and the paddock was rented as horse grazing cheaply but not managed. When we took in on it was over grazed and mostly moss and weeds (and a lot of ragwort). We have harrowed every 2 or 3 weeks for the last 4 or 5 years and co-graze sheep with the ponies. We only poo pick the main areas (round the hay feeder, water and shelter) and the rest is harrowed back in. We have gone from worm counts of 1200 plus to less than 200 consistently, although this has been hindered by bringing on a baby with a high worm burden. Grazing has improved to the point I don't need to buy hardly any hard feed.

We're sandy soil so we will never have lush grass as there isn't enough moisture in the ground in summer months. But I like it as I usually don't get a lot of mud. Although the current weather conditions are testing even my ground.

What I'm trying to say (I think) is that not all ground is cr#p. And cr#p ground can be improved without to much effort, just consistency and time.

 

[Sanversera]

Mine have a zero type chop alfalfa and molasses free with a largish blob of soaked speedy beet.i mix naff powder balancer into the speedy beet.they have salt licks and ad lib hay.

 

[AutumnDays]

Mine won’t eat the powders (have tried forage plus and progressive earth) but are happy to scoff both the Equimins hoof mender or the advance concentrate complete one straight out of my hand. I have 8 currently at mine, 2 are livery’s so their owner gets their feed if needed. The old mare gets a big bucket of slop twice a day as her teeth aren’t great now and I feed all the others a half measure or the Equimins. They’re out on a big field with lots of hedges, have ad-lib decent but not amazing round bale hay netted and then a portion each of first cut really nice stuff in the mornings made from different fields so I’m fairly confident they are getting enough vits and mins. They also always have salt licks and Rockies magnesium licks in the shelters.

What I like about the Equimins is the palatability and small portions as I can go round and give them all a handful out of my pocket so don’t have to catch/ try to do individual buckets for those that don’t need it. When I ride I put the Equimins in a small scoop of the old ponies food as a litte thank you in a bucket but don’t need to do it for all.

I may just buy and try the hoof mender, I had a good look around last night and after all the helpful advice on here it does seem to tick all the boxes. The other one I'd narrowed it down to was the protexin gut balancer, thinking that better digestion will lead to better utilisation of the forage

 

[marmalade76]

Our land was originally a farm yard paddock (about 5 acres nearest the farm yard). Then the farm was turned into a business park, and the paddock was rented as horse grazing cheaply but not managed. When we took in on it was over grazed and mostly moss and weeds (and a lot of ragwort). We have harrowed every 2 or 3 weeks for the last 4 or 5 years and co-graze sheep with the ponies. We only poo pick the main areas (round the hay feeder, water and shelter) and the rest is harrowed back in. We have gone from worm counts of 1200 plus to less than 200 consistently, although this has been hindered by bringing on a baby with a high worm burden. Grazing has improved to the point I don't need to buy hardly any hard feed.

We're sandy soil so we will never have lush grass as there isn't enough moisture in the ground in summer months. But I like it as I usually don't get a lot of mud. Although the current weather conditions are testing even my ground.

What I'm trying to say (I think) is that not all ground is cr#p. And cr#p ground can be improved without to much effort, just consistency and time.

Clay soil is the worst IME, a sticky mess in winter and dries fast to rock hard with only a tiny window for rolling.

 

[emilylou]

I haven’t read any of the other replies. But I think a good balancer is always worth the money. I feed mine on topspec lite at the recommended amount and plenty of forage. That’s it. They hunt, are very fit and have stayed sound. They have good feet and their coats shine even though they are clipped.
Cutting corners always leads to bigger costs down the road, get the basics right- don’t skimp on quality of feed, farrier and well fitting tack, get teeth done and worm appropriately, put the time in to get them appropriately fit for what you want to do. You are so much less likely to end up with a sore horse or vet bills down the road if you spend money on the basics.

I’d also say, you can save money by not adding chaff to the feed, just soaking a little longer to make mash if you don’t want to feed dry, don’t add other supplements to begin with as if on enough good forage and good balancer they may not need anything else.

 

[marmalade76]

I haven’t read any of the other replies. But I think a good balancer is always worth the money. I feed mine on topspec lite at the recommended amount and plenty of forage. That’s it. They hunt, are very fit and have stayed sound. They have good feet and their coats shine even though they are clipped.
Cutting corners always leads to bigger costs down the road, get the basics right- don’t skimp on quality of feed, farrier and well fitting tack, get teeth done and worm appropriately, put the time in to get them appropriately fit for what you want to do. You are so much less likely to end up with a sore horse or vet bills down the road if you spend money on the basics.

I’d also say, you can save money by not adding chaff to the feed, just soaking a little longer to make mash if you don’t want to feed dry, don’t add other supplements to begin with as if on enough good forage and good balancer they may not need anything else.

A sack of chaff lasts ages, though. But yes, it is expensive considering it's mostly just chopped up hay & straw.

 

[paddy555]

my ponies get hay and grass plus 2 small feeds a day of molichaff. They probably don't need the feeds but it is for my convenience in that they come in of their own accord twice a day and saves me having to catch them/check them

. The 4 horses each get equimins advanced complete
salt, 3000iu per day vit e oil (top of my list) and some get micro linseed and pea protein.
then hay/haylage, hi fibre nuts/equibeet soaked to put the supplements in and one gets chaff. Plus a good sized carrot each.

if you struggle to get supplements/balancers down them soak 1/2 lb sugar beet (molassed) and put the nasties in there. If you are only talking about a supplement, say equimins pellets, it will only be a tiny quantity of sugar beet.

when buying a supplement look at the labels and see exactly how much is in there and what you are getting for your money.

 

[SEL]

Clay soil is the worst IME, a sticky mess in winter and dries fast to rock hard with only a tiny window for rolling.

I swear I had about 3 hours last spring / summer when I could have rolled it

Gave up in the end, but its been so wet this year the churned up winter field was squidgy enough when they went in it that the potholes didn't matter.

Now I just have a flooded bog though

 

[AutumnDays]

I swear I had about 3 hours last spring / summer when I could have rolled it

Gave up in the end, but its been so wet this year the churned up winter field was squidgy enough when they went in it that the potholes didn't matter.

Now I just have a flooded bog though

On clay here too, I share your frustrations

 

[Cragrat]

I have a big homebred older horse (17hh 21y/o TB) who has has been on decent balancers his whole life (Progressive Earth for maybe 15 years?). He (and the 2 others) moved on to their more basic mix Pro 3 Trace, with added natural Vit E and Biotin a few years ago. This gives really good quantities of the really important vits and mins, with a quality I trust. I also give a joint supplement and add a gut supplement if and when needed. I can vary the amount of base feed he gets (sugarbeet and alfalfa , wiith oats as needed) but ensure he always his vits/minerals. Everyone (vet. physio, instructor) says how good he looks, and he is still in full work. He has been barefoot his entire life, and his feet are great.

I daren't change anything now!

 

[Squeak]

I swear by Emerald Green feeds- mine get a 50:50 mix of soaked grass and alfalfa pellets. I buy in bulk and have it delivered, it has a long shelf life so I only order a pallet once every 2 years. It is really good quality and does a great job of topping up the good stuff when winter grass loses its goodness. I don’t feed much because they also get ad-lib haylage, so it works out as 1 Stubbs scoop between the 5 horses plus a bit of feed merchant own-brand chaff to mix.
Winter feeding 5 horses costs me about £300 in total

I feed my TB on emerald green grass nuts, sugarbeet, micronised linseed and some grass chaff. So far this winter I've used three bags of grass nuts, one bag of chaff, one bag of micronised linseed and two bags of speedibeet and he's in show condition.

Always been tempted to try their alfalfa pellets but the place who do the grass nuts don't do the alfalfa unfortunately, maybe I'll try harder to get some!

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I'm fairly sure it's a fact that our soils aren't what they used to be since the industrial revolution due to intensive agriculture, but will have to look into it further.

I don't doubt that feed companies are trying to sell us many products that our horses don't need, though. I'm just not sure that balancers are one of them.

Are your fields used for intensive agriculture, or have they been recently? Our horses have never been grazed on monoculture grass over the 50 yrs we have kept horses.

 

[Miss_Millie]

Are your fields used for intensive agriculture, or have they been recently? Our horses have never been grazed on monoculture grass over the 50 yrs we have kept horses.

Our fields had only been grazed by sheep and occasionally small ponies for 50+ years before we bought the land, cut for hay in summer. The grass is quite diverse - 8 grass species or so plus herbage. But it is also classed as grade 4/low grade agri land, so I'm not sure what that means in terms of soil/nutrients. I do plan to test it this year as the old land drains run orange when the water table is high, which makes me suspect high iron content.

 

[AppyLover1996]

I'll probably get a right telling off for this but I don't feed a balancer or vits and minerals to my horses.....

I have a few reasons for this - the main one with me being at a livery yard and having to buy in my own forage, I can't get the ground nor forage tested regularly enough (and the yard owner would take great offence - a friend asked and got a right telling off!) and as the levels would constantly be changing I'd have a never ending amount of balancers/vitamins/minerals hanging around which would get near to no use.

I do however get both my guys blood tested to look for deficiencies and I will supplement with anything they need for a while before retesting to see where the levels are and take appropriate action.

I'm such a worry wart when it comes to feeding, add that my two lads are quite fussy with meal sizes so I've never managed to successfully hide any quantity of powdered supplements as they seem to require a fair amount each time, and if the meal size is too large both lads will leave the entire bucket...at the same time I try and stay away from any highly processed feeds with dubious ingredients as I like to feed my guys as natural as possible and anything containing molasses/alfalfa/barley/oats are all out of the question as my lads can't tolerate those ingredients and break out in hives etc.

Instead I focus on feeding as natural as possible so feed is something that I don't and won't compromise on - both lads have ad lib haylage which isn't too wet nor too dry, 1 small bucket feed a day containing some grass chaff with Speedibeet, I do pop some herbs in such as Rosehips, Mint, Cleavers, Thyme and I do occasionally add Milk Thistle for liver detoxing, plus ample turnout for anywhere between 8 and 14 hours on average grazing, but that is all my two get and both are in fab condition with my vets, physio, chiro and barefoot trimmer all happy with them

Edited to add : The above feeding schedule is for a retired pony and a rising 2 year old (who was fed similarly when he was at stud before he came to me). In terms of cost Speedibeet is about £20 ish a sack for 20kg and the grass chaff is £16.75 for a 15kg sack, the Speedibeet lasts on average 2 ish months and the grass chaff lasts just over a month. My forage is the most expensive working out at about £200.00 ish a month alone but it keeps my lads happy and healthy which is the main reason why I haven't looked elsewhere as I'm of the school "If it ain't broke don't go meddling!"