As winter approaches and horse owners are feeding their horses to maintain body condition through the colder months, some horses may need feed balancers, also known as ration balancers, and supplements.
Meeting nutritional needs of horses
Feed ration balancers for horses have been around for many years and most major feed companies have at least one, if not a whole range of balancers in their feed range.
Feed ration balancers have been around for many years and most major feed companies will have at least one if not a whole range of balancers in their feed range. However, there are many horse owners who do not really understand these balancers and whether they should feed them or not.
Historically the first ration balancers available were the oat balancers. These were balancers formulated to be fed with oats or other straight cereals to balance the deficiencies. Oat balancers still exist mainly for racehorse trainers which feed oats as the basis of their hard feed.
The new balancers however are formulated to be forage balancers to be fed alongside pasture and hay or haylage.
Balancers are low calorie, highly nutrient dense feeds more like supplements than normal compound feeds and usually have balancer in the name, although not always. You might see stud balancer, feed balancer, ultimate balancer, performance balancer, but then again other very good balancers may not mention balancer at all.
One of the first balancers to hit market in the UK was a stud balancer. It was formulated to be fed to breeding stock with pasture. This was because pasture is often deficient in micro-minerals such as copper and zinc and the balancer was fed in very small quantities to add a range of micronutrients and quality amino acids to the diets of grazing broodmares and youngstock. The pasture, particularly in the summer, usually provides all the calories to maintain condition.
Since then many forage balancers have become available. Unless you analyse the pasture and/or hay or haylage for micronutrients you cannot know whether or not a mineral deficiency is present.
Feeding a balancer provides these micronutrients in a very small quantity of feed and is more of an insurance policy. Where summer grazing is good the balancer can be fed at half the recommended rate.
The benefits of feeding ration balancers to horses:
- Nutrient dense – Providing high levels of nutrients in very small quantities, usually 0.5 to 1.0kg per day. Ideal for good doers, horses on box rest, horses on low starch/rations, veterans, in fact any horse or pony in good condition which is not working hard.
- Economical to feed – Although the price per bag seems expensive, if you work out the daily cost of feeding 0.5kg per day for example compared to other mainstream horse feeds, balancers are really economical (some more than others). Some balancers cost only one pence to feed per day. (In USA currency only pennies a day,)
- Highly versatile feed, can be the base of any feeding program with forage. If feeding forage-based high fiber natural feeds such as chaffs, beet pulp, oil, etc, balancers will supplement the necessary micronutrients, which may be lacking.
- Small quantities do not upset the horses stomach. They are low starch feeds also and so are ideal for horses which are on low starch/sugar rations.
Balancers are a micronutrient dense feed allowing the forage to provide calories to meet requirements and the balancer to add micronutrients and quality amino acids
When buying a balancer check the price for the weight of bag and work out from daily feeding recommendations how much it will cost to feed the balancer per day at the recommended rate.
Some balancers are sold as conditioning. Balancers are fed at such a low rate (0.5-1kg) compared to other compound feeds, the energy or calorie intake is low, so they are not a good choice for horses and ponies needing more condition. These need a higher energy compound feed or a high energy, high fat supplementary feed as a top dresser.