Should I be feeding a balancer?

Star the Fell

Star the Fell

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Jun 14, 2015
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My Fell pony is a very good doer. She doesn't need a hard feed, but at night she comes in to a feed ball which has a chapped carrot, one chopped apples about 8 hi fibre cubes and 2 equi bites. She loves her ball and it means she doesn't dive straight onto her haylage net.
In the morning she has a feed purely because the other three horses have one. She gets a handful of hi ifi molasses free, wetted down with water, a sliced carrot a sliced apple and two equi bites.
Am I better off replacing the equi bites with a lo cal balancer or do I leaver well alone?
She is healthy enough, slightly overweight..and is barefoot if tat makes any difference.
 
I started Albi on Spillers Lite balancer recentry and his behavior changed. He got much more zingy to ride so as I'm not one of the most confident riders these days, I took him off it. Trouble is, his behaviour on our last hack has put me off riding him so I don't actually know whether anything has changed!
 
Is it the d&h equibites? I'd ditch the carrot and apple as they are both high in sugar and give enough if the equibites for her size to make sure she's getting all she needs, no need for a balancer if she gets everything from them :)
 
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I agree with not using the apple and carrot as part of regular feedings, especially for such an easy keeper. I save those for treats which I only give very occasionally, like Christmas and birthdays. I'm not much of a treat giver though:).
 
No idea what equibites are, but most equine nutritionists seem to be saying that fibre and a balancer are the way forward re: feeing horses at the mo. Mine has the Top Spec Comprehensive balancer as it's supposed to be excellent for hoof growth (and cheaper than Farrier's Formula, which she was on before!) She also has their version of Calm & Condition. She was dropping off quite a lot so has had a big increase in hard feed. None of it has made her more fizzy, spooky or tricky to ride, although she does have more energy and better feet, which is nice!
 
domane said:
I started Albi on Spillers Lite balancer recentry and his behavior changed. He got much more zingy to ride so as I'm not one of the most confident riders these days, I took him off it. Trouble is, his behaviour on our last hack has put me off riding him so I don't actually know whether anything has changed!
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What did he do on your last hack? I had Roxy on that for a while (Spillers Lite) - no change in her behaviour. It didn't really do enough for her to make it worthwhile though.
 
Yes, they are D&H equi bites. Don't like the idea of ditching the apple and carrot as she would then have next to nothing in he ball which she loves playing with. Wouldn't have thought two carrots and two apples a day would be much of a problem? They are the children's Fun size apples so very small.......
 
Equibites are an all in one vitamin and mineral, low sugar & starch treat.

Star the Fell said:
Yes, they are D&H equi bites. Don't like the idea of ditching the apple and carrot as she would then have next to nothing in he ball which she loves playing with. Wouldn't have thought two carrots and two apples a day would be much of a problem? They are the children's Fun size apples so very small.......
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They are very high in sugar, some kind of high fibre nuts would be a much better option in the ball. Jess is a good doer and has cushings, I wouldnt dream of giving her 2 carrots and 2 apples in one day :( she gets them as occasional treats.
 
squidsin said:
What did he do on your last hack? I had Roxy on that for a while (Spillers Lite) - no change in her behaviour. It didn't really do enough for her to make it worthwhile though.
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We accompanied Dom on Jack for a short pootle before we had Jack's shoes pulled. I wanted Dom to ride him to confirm that he doesn't feel right so we just went down the road, we were only out about 30-40 mins. Albi was bucking, spooking at birds and when we turned for home he wanted to jog the whole time. I've never known him like that when we have been out solo, let alone in Jack's company, he's normally the sensible one! Albs isn't usually a problem when he hasn't been ridden for a while, one of the things I am proud of is that I can pull him in from the field and just go (nothing energetic, I hasten to add, I know he's unfit.... well, we both are!!) and he might be a bit snorty or looky but not stupid. It was like he was on rocket fuel and the only thing in his diet that was different was the balancer.... same hay, chaff and beet. Maybe he is having the Kevin's because he will be 7 in the summer, I don't know, but when I find the time I will be riding him in the school for a while before venturing out again as we will definitely be on our own now.
 
When did balancers first appear on the market? I just don't get the need for them.

Good doers are good doers because they are so adept at getting nutrients.
Grass and hay technically should provide everything unless they are in medium to hard work. The racers here didn't get all this added "powder and potions" as the trainer called it.
 
newforest said:
When did balancers first appear on the market? I just don't get the need for them.

Good doers are good doers because they are so adept at getting nutrients.
Grass and hay technically should provide everything unless they are in medium to hard work. The racers here didn't get all this added "powder and potions" as the trainer called it.
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Lots of horses don't get all the nutrients they need from forage alone, depending on the grazing. Balancers are a way of adding these nutrients without increasing calories. It might not be how things have always been done, but it seems like a pretty sensible idea to me. Racehorses may not have had them, but racehorses typically have ulcers and a short life expectancy, and trainers rarely care about their long-term gut health.
 
I agee for the most part, but any land producing one crop long term begins getting deficent in things, thats why farmers rotate crops, grazing is no exception esp when its overgrazed which is all too many yards.
 
Yes it could depend on what grass you have access to, or if you have winter turnout. But ponies are designed to be on poor grazing.
The nutritional course that myself and other members here did were told that most grazing we put our horses on was in fact too rich.

For a haylage diet you could feed this
http://www.naylors.com/naf-haylage-balancer-1-8kg?gclid=CIXJ2abFosoCFWsJwwodOlcFXQ
But I would want to read the ingredients first.
 
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newforest said:
Yes it could depend on what grass you have access to, or if you have winter turnout. But ponies are designed to be on poor grazing.
The nutritional course that myself and other members here did were told that most grazing we put our horses on was in fact too rich.

For a haylage diet you could feed this
http://www.naylors.com/naf-haylage-balancer-1-8kg?gclid=CIXJ2abFosoCFWsJwwodOlcFXQ
But I would want to read the ingredients first.
Click to expand...

The richness of the grass isn't a factor as to whether to feed a balancer, rich grass can still be nutritionally deficient. A balancer is like taking a multi-vitamin for those of us who don't have completely balanced diets.
 
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I feed my good doer a balancer. Mine was over weight and on longish green grass constantly but when tested came back anaemic. So they can still lack mins & vits. I was recommended by my vet to feed a balancer as its supposed to contain all the the horse needs.
 
Balancers haven't been about that long but vit and mineral supplements have been about for years and are basically the same thing :D balancer is just the new buzz word
 
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@chunky monkey, if mine showed signs of lacking something/ill health I would blood test the same as you did.
She has just come off vet meds and they didn't want her on any shop bought supplements.
 
You don't need to be in poor health to benefit from taking a multi-vitamin. But whatevs.
 
Horses aren't supposed to eat just grass though are they? If left to forage naturally they'd eat a much wider variety of plants.

My vet recently told me that Raf doesn't need a balancer if he's being fed on a mix, but if he's on just nuts then yes go ahead and feed the balancer.

I'm only quoting the vet because I know nothing!
 
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