What to feed with top spec balancer?help!

[Bluecat]

My 15.2hh Connemara is a fairly good doer in the summer but loses weight and condition in the winter. I've just put him on top spec cool balancer. His existing feed is Alfa a oil chaff and baileys number 4 conditioning cubes. I've just added the balancer to his normal feed. Should I change the chaff or number 4 or just keep it the same?i wondered whether he was maybe having too much oil as it's in all the feeds he's on?also in the summer when he does ok shall I cut down the balancer again?any help would be great

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Well, to play devil's advocate, why have you put him on this?
Personal recco? because it looked good? Or other reason?

Might be worth you speaking to Top Spec to see what they recco to feed alongside, that will compliment and work for your horse.

 

[Bluecat]

Because I was recommended it and I felt he maybe lacking vit and minerals.

 

[Midlifecrisis]

One of my mares has a little speedibeet with her balancer and the other soaked high fibre nuts..just a bit of extra wet fibre which I can pop supplements in if I have to ...and that's it.

 

[TGM]

Are you feeding the recommended amount of the Baileys? If so you don't need to feed a balancer!

 

[Bluecat]

I to be honest no I'm probably not feeding the recommended amount of baileys at the moment no but was last winter and he didn't do very well on it so I thought I'd try an alternative. I am feeding the right amount of top spec though so wonder whether to cut the baileys out

 

[be positive]

If he didn't do well on the Baileys last winter then I would stop feeding it, it may be he doesn't suit a high starch and sugar diet, I think most do well on a forage based diet with oil added to give extra calories, I would probably cut out the Baileys, change it to either a grass nut or alfalfa pellet, give linseed instead of, possibly as well as the alfa a oil, which would be cheaper and probably a more calorie dense way of feeding without giving so much in a bucket, if you can feed 3 smaller feeds a day that can make a great difference.
You can then feed the balancer if you want without overdoing any of the vits or mins, cutting down in summer when he should get plenty of vits/ mins from decent grazing makes sense but up it before the grass quality goes.

 

[Bluecat]

Thanks be positive really helpful. I'd like to keep him on the Alfa oil and top spec balancer. Just wondering if I cut out the baileys whether I need to add something else to keep his weight on. I don't know much about linseed. Would that not be adding more oil?would it fizz him up?

 

[Orangehorse]

Speak to Top Spec, their feeds are formulated to be balanced and you shouldn't need another compound feed. I found when I put a horse onto a balancer they put on the correct amount of weight. Top Spec is expensive, so you don't want to feed extra if you don't need to.

 

[be positive]

Thanks be positive really helpful. I'd like to keep him on the Alfa oil and top spec balancer. Just wondering if I cut out the baileys whether I need to add something else to keep his weight on. I don't know much about linseed. Would that not be adding more oil?would it fizz him up?

Linseed should not make hi fizzy, it should not be too much oil but I would give another forage based feed to help keep the weight on, my tb did really well on grassnuts, linseed and a chop with ad lib haylage in the winter, nothing here gets a compound feed they are all on grassnuts as a base, I use linseed if they require extra calories.

 

[Bluecat]

Thanks for the advice and I agree topspec is expensive so ideally I don't want to be feeding loads of other things. I will give them a ring. Not sure if maybe giving Him a chaff/chop without oil would be better but then would I not need something else to keep the weight on. So confused!looking through forums many seem to suggest top spec cool and condition cubes as well as the balancer!

 

[Bluecat]

Orangehorse what did you feed the balancer with?

 

[Bluecat]

Would speedi beet work well with the balancer?just I feed that to my oldie during the winter so wondering if swapping to that instead of the baileys number 4

 

[AGray825]

I would actually turn to the Allen and Page quick soak feeds before turning to speedibeet personally... maybe that's just personal preference but speedibeet tends to cause fizziness in my experience.
At the moment I'm feeding both my injured 4yo and Section D 17yo on Allen and Page fast fibre, TopSpec light balancer and TopChop zero (to slow them down!) and they're both look marvellous on it. If I needed desperately to put weight on any of them I change the Allen and Page first (to either Veteran Vitality or Calm and Condition) and then the chaff afterwards (my mum feeds her poor doer TB on Dengie HiFi Molasses Free with her balancers and she seems to do well on that)

But yeah, really highly recommend Allen and Page feeds, and the prices are really reasonable as well, seeing as I find the feed lasts for a fair amount of time

 

[TGM]

Thanks for the advice and I agree topspec is expensive so ideally I don't want to be feeding loads of other things. I will give them a ring. Not sure if maybe giving Him a chaff/chop without oil would be better but then would I not need something else to keep the weight on. So confused!looking through forums many seem to suggest top spec cool and condition cubes as well as the balancer!

Nearly all commercial mixes, cubes, mashes etc., are supplemented with vit/mins so won't need a balancer fed alongside them. One of the exceptions is TopSpec - they formulate their cubes without supplementation, because they are designed to be fed alongside their balancers.

However, if you are concerned about cost you may be better looking at feeding some straight feedstuffs alongside the balancer for extra calories - soaked grass pellets or unmollassed beet are both fairly economical and reasonably high in calories.

 

[paddi22]

yeah i wouldn't be paying for a complete feed and a balancer on top of it. I'd stick to one feed - we get rescues in and have had good results and had a few poor doers, so we give them equerry condition mash with great results. we also tried dodson and horrel build and glow on a few and that worked well too - a friend had super results with equijewel as well but ive never tried it. I'd be tempted to just find the right balance of a hard feed, and then add a supplement like equijewel/outshine when needed.

 

[Orangehorse]

Orangehorse what did you feed the balancer with?

My computer had a funny turn so I couldn't reply.

Although my horse is 16.00 hh I always treated him as a potential laminitic, so it was always low sugar, etc. I used to feed Top Spec Comprehensive with Top Spec Top Chop Lite, mixed with soaked sugar beet, just to make it a bit more apetising and when he was working hard I added oats. Although I tried different feeds and even different Top Spec feeds, I always came back to the Comprehensive as he seemed to do better on that on a half measure than on the others full measure (if you read the instructions a mature horse that isn't doing to much can have less of the balancer).

If you don't want to feed oats you can add Simple Systems Red Bag grass nuts, which are rocket fuel and have the advantage that as they are a forage feed they don't need introduction, so you can feed them on Friday night before a busy weekend and leave them out MOnday to Friday (check with Symple Systems about that).

I tried Simple Sytems once but heard slight mumblings about their Balancer not being all that balanced. Also the Red Bag nuts are like spring grass and I was fearful of the laminitis thing. I found that although my horse loved the feed it made him fat and with not much go - and someone with a warmblood said the same. Great for sparky horses like Arabs and TB but not for lazy whatsits.

So I went back to Top Spec. Although now he is semi retired he is on forage, linseed and Pro Balance supplement as cheaper.

 

[FabioandFreddy]

My TB needed building up when i first got him and was on Topspec comprehensive balancer, UlsaKind nuts and some Fast Fibre/Happy Hoof chaff. He done incredibly well on it and has been switched to Topspec Lite balancer with just some Happy Hoof chaff - he doesn't need anything else along with adlib grazing/haylage. Our ISH is on exactly the same and also does well on it. Would just add some linseed if more calories needed but haven't needed to.