I have several horses, 3 Lipizzans and an Arab/Percheron who don’t need much in the way of extra calories. The Arab/perch is IR and now on Thyrol L, and the Lippies are on limited or no grass. I’ve been giving them Timothy grass hay, soaked for the Arabx mare, and just Timothy pellets to put their supps in. They have been getting California trace but just ran out and thinking of overhauling their diet to address protein and vit/mins needs. I need to get my hay tested off course, but has anyone really broken down the various ration balancers to see which is the best. I’m not an equine nutritionist so trying to break it down makes my head spin. I’m in New York btw
Really it all boils down to what balancer compliments your forage the best. I personally prefer Triple Crown 30% but I am a fan of Triple Crown overall.
https://www.triplecrownfeed.com/prod…tion-balancer/
2 Likes
I’m another huge fan of Triple Crown products. I used TC 30 on my herd until the Gold Balancer came out. That’s our current feed due to the lower protein and the added gastric buffering. I have also used TC Lite with great success. That is a lower starch feed that is fairly complete in terms of nutritional needs.
If you reach out to TC they’re amazing about helping match your horses with a product. For price per lb I find TC to be one of the best deals in my area. The feeds are more complete than others available to me and it’s cheaper than using Cal Trace or something similar. My only issue with TC is that they all have added iron, but for me it’s still cheaper to add my own copper and zinc than Cal Trace was.
2 Likes
What do you feel is ‘broken’ with your current program that needs to be fixed?
Depending on how much you’re feeding of the Timothy pellets, you might actually end up feeding more calories switching to a full ‘serving’ of ration balancer. You could switch to CA Trace plus, if you feel like they might benefit? Or try one of the other comparable vit/min supplements (VT Blend is my preferred one, but there are others!).
2 Likes
I would stick with putting the supplements in timothy pellets. I’ve been doing that for my IR horse and my easy keeper for the last six years.
I use HorseTech’s vit/min supplement for grass fed horses. It has everything a metabolic or easy keeper need. It is also soy-free and has NO added iron.
https://horsetech.com/high-point-grass
I use the meal form as it’s cheaper than pellets.
I test my hay for NSC and WSC but I don’t sweat over mineral imbalances. My horses are on 20+ good acres and so far they are doing great with HorseTech’s generalized vit/min supplement:)
FWIW, my IR horse has been in remission since 2015 and gets to enjoy several hours daily without a muzzle. He comes in at night as does the other horse. The big player in that is the hay. My hay is locally grown and the growers know when to cut, albeit I lay them the nose for it ($9/small square this year). It has always tested somewhere in the 8% range.
Between the low NSC hay and the low NSC & calories in HorseTech’s vit/min supplement, it allows my IR horse to have a little more pasture time and enjoy life his life as he was meant to — being a grazing animal:)
My IR fella this spring. He is 25. He is also on Prascend for Cushings. He is also the horse that fractured his sacrum for the second time in 2019. He’s been to Hades and back twice since his IR diagnosis/founder in 2012. He’s a fighter and I swear by the HorseTech vit/min supplement (+ a couple other of their supplements) to help keep the light in his eyes:)
[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“data-attachmentid”:10702476}[/ATTACH]
1 Like
My air-fern DraftX mares get: 2 Cups EquiPride, extra Vitamin E (On hay 24/7/365) and 1/2 tsp natural Zinc/Copper. That’s it. Super simple, what they need, no extra calories.
1 Like
We overhauled our feed program last month. After analyzing diets for every horse in the barn (who all get the same hay), we picked ProElite Grass Advantage as our ration balancer.
I would start by getting your hay tested and then go from there.
My chunky guy gets Purina Optimal as my local feed store only sells Purina. I’m in Canada so the Purina RB in the US may be called something different. In the past I’ve also fed Tribute Essential K which I liked, but it’s a 1.5hr round trip for me to get it now.
I also feed a vit E/selenium supplement as our soil is deficient and for most of the year they’re primarily eating hay, not grass. I also feed a hoof supplement to help offset the high iron around here.
If you are planning to get your hay tested, then horsetech does custom vitamin/mineral supplements to compliment your hay.
1 Like
Ration balancers can pack a ton of calories. If your horses are that limited to where they cannot be on grass I would look at just feeding a well rounded vitamin/ mineral supplement. If CA Trace is such a product I would stay with that.
My horses are easy keepers and I feed Purina Enrich RB with good results. I have one mare who wears a muzzle part of the day on pasture but none of them are as limited as yours.
2 Likes
[QUOTE=candyappy;n10702552]
If your horses are that limited to where they cannot be on grass I would look at just feeding a well rounded vitamin/ mineral supplement. If CA Trace is such a product I would stay with that./QUOTE]
CA Trace or K.I.S. minerals.
Mad Barn’s Amino Trace+ might work for you? All around multi vitamin/mineral but with extra copper/zinc to balance out high iron. Also some biotin and additional hoof support for feet. If they don’t need the extra calories from the ration balancer, this can round out most hays and provide the basics. Always best to test your hay if you can.
1 Like
Ration balancers don’t have a ton of calories. Most are in the 1300cal/lb range, fed at 1, maybe 2lb a day. Compared to 1500-ish at 5lb a day for an average feed, so 7500 calories, that’s a pretty big difference.
The “best” entirely depends on your forage. That said, I find TC 30 better for most forages because of the higher copper and zinc. Compare that to Tribute Essential K with pretty significantly lower amounts, and higher iron, and I’d choose TC every day all day.
However, I might avoid soy for an IR horse, and there are very few soy-free balancers, thankfully Triple Crown did just come out with their Balancer Gold which is 100% soy-free.
There are lots of high end v/m supps to choose from, but again, without a forage analysis, it’s a best guess. California Trace, Vermont Blend, Arizona Copper Complete (unfortuantely it has manganese with most horses just don’t need more of), High Point Grass, and several form Uckele. The Mad Barn product is also very good.
2 Likes
So if i feed tc gold rb instead of tc 30 rb i can drop the outlast that i am feeding?
Very possible - it’s the “same” seaweed-derived calcium source, just like Outlast uses. I put it in quotes as I don’t think it’s the same supplier, but otherwise, the same.
Mad Barn’s Amino Trace is the Canadian version of California Trace with high copper and zinc said to help metabolic horses.
2 Likes
If you are still looking at Ration Balancers here is another name to add to your search. We are very happy with their E-TEC line of products.
https://www.poulingrain.com/products/182
2 Likes
I did and I haven’t noticed any changes in behavior back to pre-outlast days. But I would evaluate each horse on an individual basis. I still use outlast on trips and as a training treat just because my horses do respond positively towards it and my large pony gets super stressed in new locations the first time.
1 Like
Thank you all for your info. The last few ration bslancers I used, Purina and Nutrena, made a few of my horses hit. I will have to get my hay tested and go from there
My mare is on Thryro L and the vet recommended Purina Enrich for her needs. It has worked out very well.
