Friend’s daughter is putting together a horse report/survey. Favorite overall ration balancer and why? Thank you!
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I’ve used both LMF Super Supplement and now Triple Crown Gold and hands down prefer the Gold.
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Purina Enrich Plus. Widely available and more palatable in my experience than Triple Crown 30%.
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I’ve only fed Purina Enrich Plus. My horses have eaten it happily for years and never turned up their nose at finishing every last morsel.
That is why I favor it. Some other RB’s are known to have the horses stop eating it after a while. Doesn’t do much good if the horse won’t eat it.
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Buckeye Nutrition Gro 'N Win.
Started feeding at beginning of the pandemic because Chewy delivered it and I didn’t have to leave the farm. Horses seem to like it if leaving none in the feeders is the means of assessment, so I’ve continued using Buckeye.
And it is in 30 pound bags. Aging has made it difficult for me to lift 50 pound bags.
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I second Gro N Win but in Ontario I think it only comes in 50 pound bags lol.
the one you can get, afford, and that the horse will eat.
Unless you have a forage analysis showing why one is better than another, then it’s a guessing game anyway.
I personally like TC Balancer over the other commonly available Purina Enrich and Nutrena Empower Balance, for a better iron/copper/zinc deal, since all forage around me is high in iron (because land of red clay).
Tribute and ProElite are totally fine ,Buckeye is a great product, not a fan as much of LMF as they contain corn and are generally higher in NSC (which is still fine for most horses).
They’re all "good enough’ without more info showing why one is better.
You can’t look at what one did for another horse because that horse isn’t your horse 
I don’t like surveys like this because they’re totally subjective, based on opinions (unless you’re discussing specifics like a certain nutrient content), and almost everyone who tried A that didn’t work but B did has no idea why, when you can ask another person and A worked where B didn’t but they don’t know why either.
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Any ration balancer from a reputable, well-researched brand will be more or less equivalent. Examples include Purina Enrich Plus, Triple Crown Balancer (and Balancer Gold), Seminole Equalizer, Buckeye Grow N Win, Nutrena Empower Balance, Pinnacle Balancer, ProElite Grass Advantage, Hallway Stamm 30, etc.
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I’ve fed (or have had a horse that has been fed) most of the big-name ones at one time or the other over the years: Tribute Essential K, Purina Enrich Plus, Nutrena Empower Balance, Triple Crown Balancer, and ProElite Grass Advantage. I never really saw much of a difference between them. My current horse was on Tribute Essential K for a little bit about three years ago, (and then on Kalm N EZ feed for a while) and then ate ProElite Grass Advantage for about a year (what barn fed). He did okay on them, but does much better on hay pellets with a forage balancer (KIS Trace) instead of a ration balancer.
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My horse needs one that is soy free. He will eat TC Gold but much prefers the Tribute Wholesome Blends one in terms of palatability. I was having some trouble with consistent deliveries of TC which prompted me at first to mix in the Tribute and now switch entirely. He thinks the senior in the Tribute line is the best but he cannot have a full ration of that—just gets a little soaked for his meds.
My other horse who does not appear to have special needs now gets less than a full ration of TC Senior Gold (the only higher calorie feed I could find that he would consistently eat when I started him on it when he needed a lot of food), and so I’ve tried too dressing with the Gold balancer and he is not a fan (also did not care for Perform Gold). He also didn’t like the Pro Elite the barn provides. But he will eat the Tribute.
KIS Vitamin and Mineral Balancer. Wanted to get off soy and my guys are picky. They gobble this down.
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I like the ingredient list on the TC 30% balancer…but my horses have decided they do not love the taste. They will eat if forced to and only with other good stuff mixed in…so I am going to be switching to something else.
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Another vote for Tribute Wholesome blend
Yay for KIS Trace! I always see California Trace and Vermont Blend mentioned on the forums, but rarely KIS Trace. I love this stuff. My horse loves it too. He ate the original very well, but I wanted to see how he felt about the new flavor. Loves it too. Maybe even more than the original.
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Oh and good to know on that new flavor. I’ll try that one next. Yes, it’s been a long journey and I have several containers of the other stuff I tried. Plan to donate to a horse rescue and make good use of it on less picky ponies.
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Right now I have one horse on Purina Enrich as he turned down TC ration balancer.
Pony is on beet pulp, v/m supplement as he also won’t eat the soy free options.
TSC here ( close to me) will not carry ration balancers. The only other feed stores are 45 to 60 minutes from my house and back before I retired they were only open on Saturday mornings ( weekdays were out due to work). I was feeding Triple Crown because the one feed store carried it but my Cushings Pony decided he wouldn’t eat it any more. Then I found that I could get Gro N Win delivered here from Chewy for less than the feed store price. All my horses like it and I don’t see any advantage to driving all over the place to get one bag of feed.
I used to get the 30 lb bags but I did a per pound calculation that showed buying the 50 lb bag is a better deal. I sure do like carrying the 30 lb bags a WHOLE lot better than wrestling with one 50 lb bag but I opted for cheaper.
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I add Vit E in the Winter, and cu/zn year-round, but no, not anything more complete than that
My “favorite” is Triple Crown 30 balancer. The reason is because it’s the only one I’ve tried and it seems to be working just fine.
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