Which vit & min supplement do you feed?

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Overgrown Pony

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Hey guys

I feed my horse whole oats (soaked), Speedi-beet and full fat soya. Started him on it a month ago and he's looking really well on it.

Coming into my 2nd winter with him and he didn't do well last winter so i'm keen to keep the weight on him.

He's out 24/7 on decent grass and will be given top quality hay/haylege adlib once the grass isn't enough.

I bought him a Rockies baby red block and he doesn't seem interested in it at all.

Should I also give him a vit & min supplement in his feed, even though he's not self supplementing with the block?
 
It wouldn't hurt to feed a general vit and min sup as you aren't feeding a ready made "fully balanced complete feed"
Personally the Pro Balance from Progressive Earth on ebay wouldn't do any harm.
 
Fibre Beet is a good conditioning feed as is the Soft n Soak Ready mash range. I feed Top Spec complete balancer to my gelding who is a good doer and he looks amazing.
 
I did use pro balance but after realising main ingrediant is wheat feed just a bulker I swapped to Hack Up bespoke and saved myself a decent bit if money too

They add no bulk at all.
 
A lot of Scotland (as well as much of England, Wales and Ireland) is deficient in selenium. Copper and zinc are also common deficiencies.

Having been bitten by this in respect of selenium deficiency and resulting chronic muscle disease, I would now always feed a vit/min supplement or balancer containing around 1mg organic selenium (aka selenium yeast) unless my forage analysis had shown that the hay/grass had selenium at or above 0.1mg/kg DM.

Forage analysis really is the best way to learn whether or not your forage is meeting their requirements. They can look great on the outside, but have a lot of problems that can be shown up on blood tests.

Sarah
 
Do an as fed analysis and find out what one best suits your horses needs. Not all are as complete as they claim and every horses situation is different.

There are some commercial programs which will do an as fed analysis for you.
 
Definitely feed a good general vit and mineral mix at the min recommended rate.
Even though the beet has some minerals, they are not balanced for horses, depends on the feet [speaking as an associate member of the barefoot taliban], if they are in any way "not in the best condition", I would go for one which is targeted at feet, otherwise I like Feedmark Original or any other good brand, dependant on price, which is not easy to work out, I found it easiest to compare costs per 100 days.
And of course I prefer micronised linseed which is available from Charnwood Milling, 100 gms to start with and 200 if he is losing condition.
Use a weigh-tape to monitor his condition, keep a record every week, you do not want to lose weight too fast as it is hard to get it back on.
 
It is very difficult to compare mineral costs because every mix is different, tho I have to say that I thought the pro balance was quite expensive, so I bought a big tub of Benevit Original and mixed it with some Hoof Pro, it worked out at 45p per day for the boy rather than £1.00 per day.
Not very scientific, but the pony had been neglected, and I needed to give him something extra for his feet [barefoot] for 2-3 months.
.................then sold the pony! ........... to someone who wanted to shoe him, and presumably feed pony nuts, apparently the feet would "wear out" ...... BHS rules, OK!
 
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I don't feed any supplements at all,mine just have pasture mix and chaff, sometimes with fibre beet. In past years I used to buy all sorts of supplements, farriers formula, equivite, super solvitax etc. but since stopping everything haven't noticed any difference !
 
I don't feed a general supplement. Horse is out 8am - 5pm on good grass, in at night with adlib good hay. He is an average doer, can lose weight easily but also fairly easily maintained at a good weight (never gets fat). Hard feed is a scoop of Dengie Healthy Tummy at night with a mug of micronised linseed and a scoop of MagOx, plus a couple of handfuls of the same in the morning. His coat is fabulous, he is a perfect weight. Had his shoes taken off for winter a couple of weeks ago and he is happy striding out stony tracks, tarmac, working in the school. Feet are as hard as nails, haven't cracked at all (even to the nail holes), healthy frog and sole, tight white line. He also has a Himalayan rock salt lick in his stable.

So, I figure that given his has all the hallmarks of a healthy horse without me feeding an expensive supplement, he doesn't need one. The Healthy Tummy has quite a lot of added vits/mins (as well as Protexin stuff), but he doesn't get anywhere near the recommended dose of it.
 
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