Choosing the correct “balancer” for your horse’s forage-based diet…
Easy keepers are often a challenge to manage because they tend to gain weight on a forage-only diet. However, forage alone does NOT equate to a “balanced” diet. Forages (both grass and/or hay) can be deficient in essential amino acids, minerals, and vitamins.
Therefore, easy keepers on a forage-based diet will need either a ration balancer or what we tend to call a forage balancer supplement. Ration balancers supply crude protein, essential amino acids, in addition to vitamins and minerals and have a slightly larger feeding rate, normally closer to 1-2 Lbs per day. On the other hand, a forage balancer supplement fed at just a few ounces per day is not going to be a significant source of protein, but essentially a supplier of certain minerals and vitamins. Just know that it may not provide a complete mineral/vitamin package and is somewhat dependent on the forage balancer product.
Which is better for your horse? The answer is it depends…on how easy of a keeper your horse is and the nutritional content of the primary forage fed.
In cases where the horse is truly an air fern and the primary forage that is fed is also tested, its quite possible that a few ounces of a forage balancer may get the job done. But that is not always a guarantee. Only routine forage testing can confirm that.
On the contrary, if the horse can handle an additional 1100-1300 kcal in their diet and the forage is not routinely tested, then a suitable ration balancer may fit the bill quite nicely.
One is not necessarily better than the other. It entirely depends on the individual horse and the primary forage fed.
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