All About Balancers
Horse feed balancers are often misunderstood and misused. In simple terms, balancers provide a concentrated source of nutrients to balance the diet. For example, if you are feeding, a forage only diet, straights such as oats/barley or less than the recommended ration of compound feed, a balancer will provide the additional vitamins, minerals and amino acids (building blocks of protein) required for a balanced diet.
Whilst the majority of compound feeds include added vitamins and minerals, there are a few exceptions so it’s worth checking whether your chosen mix or cube will provide a balanced diet if fed at the recommended ration.
Myth Buster!
Contrary to popular belief and some misleading advertising, balancers do not provide calories for weight gain so shouldn’t be described as ‘conditioning’. Traditional conditioning feeds are high in digestible energy (energy = calories) and designed to be fed at approximately 3-4kg per day for a 500kg horse. Due to the low feeding rate (typically 500g/ day for a 500kg horse), all balancers provide a negligible level of calories. If your horse is underweight, try feeding the recommended ration of compound feed alongside good quality, ad-lib forage.
Choosing a Balancer
Look for a balancer designed to suit your horse’s base diet. For example, an overweight horse on restricted rations of forage will require a different balance of nutrients to a horse turned out with free access to spring grazing. Having said this, avoid getting too caught up on numbers alone as sometimes bigger is not always better! Here are a few tips:
- Vitamins A and D can be harmful if over-supplied. Whilst SPILLERS balancers contain sufficient amounts of vitamins A & D to balance a forage based diet, we don’t include unnecessarily high levels to try and look good on the label!
- In contrast, Vitamin E is one of the most important antioxidants and may be helpful if fed above daily requirements.
- During times of stress, intense exercise or breeding additional vitamin C may provide respiratory and immune support. However vitamin C is expensive and if added at very low levels, is unlikely to offer any benefit to the horse. Where added (not all horses need additional vitamin C in their diet), all SPILLERS balancers contain 2000mg vitamin C per kilogram.
- Balancers labelled as ‘Lite’ are not significantly lower in calories than any other balancer but may provide additional benefits for good doers. SPILLERS Lite + Lean Balancer is high in lysine and vitamin E to balance restricted rations of forage and contains cinnamon, FOS and magnesium to support a healthy metabolism.
We certainly do, please contact us using the general enquiries form and we will get one sent out to you.
Many thanks
Team SPILLERS
Please contact the Care-Line and we'll get this sent out to you.
Many thanks,
Team SPILLERS
I have 3 to feed; a fat 13.1 veteran cob that's a companion, a 16.1 good doer Cleveland Bay in light work and a Cleveland Bay yearling, 14 months and already 16.1
Suspect the spellers light is suitable for the first two but what about the yearling that's growing like a weed?
Thanks
You're right, our SPILLERS Lite + Lean Balancer sounds perfect for your senior pony and good doer Cleveland Bay. With regards to your yearling, to advise you correctly, we would need a few more details. Would you be able to call our Care-Line on 01908 22 66 26 so that you can speak directly to one of our nutritionists? Thanks, Team SPILLERS.
Many thanks
Yes, the balancer cups are now back in stock. Please just send us an email using the general enquiry form on the below link confirming you address and we shall pop one in the post for you.
https://www.spillers-feeds.com/contact/
Thanks
Team SPILLERS
He doesn't get fizzy but is quite gassy.
He is turned out everyday for 6 hours and is stabled with ad lib hay in the winter but lives out in Spring/Summer with hay.
Grass and hay are of a good quality.
Thank you
Thank you for your enquiry; We're sorry to hear your horse has EMS but it sounds like you’ve done a great job managing it.
Feed balancers are ideal for horses that maintain weight easily on forage alone. We have a wide range of feed balancers that would all be suitable for your horse with different functional ingredients as outlined below:
Daily Balancer – No added functional ingredients
Lite + Lean Balancer – Contains cinnamon, Fos and magnesium to support weight loss and a healthy metabolism and is rich in amino acids (building blocks of protein) including Lysine to support lean muscle and topline
Original Multi Balancer – Contains pre and probiotics to support digestive health, is rich in amino acids to support muscle development and topline and is high in antioxidants to support immune health
Supple + Senior Balancer – Contains glucosamine, MSM and omega 3 to support joint health, pre and probiotics to support digestive health, and is high in antioxidants to support immune health.
The feeding rate for our balancers is 100g per 100kg of bodyweight per day so for example a 500kg horse would need 500g of balancer per day.
Unfortunately all of our chopped fibres contain alfalfa however our new SPILLERS Speedy-Mash Fibre is a low calorie, molasses free sugar beet and fibre blend that does not contain any alfalfa. Speedy-Mash Fibre is a quick soaking fibre feed that can be used as an alternative to a chopped fibre. A token amount (up to 500g per day dry weight) is ideal to bulk out the bucket and extend eating time.
Regular body condition scoring will help to keep track of any gradual changes and subsequently whether any adjustments to their diets may be necessary. We use the 1 – 9 scale, aiming to maintain a score of 4.5 – 5 for those prone to laminitis.
You can find more information on the balancers we have mentioned and Speedy-Mash Fibre here on our website along with a body condition scoring tool that you may find useful:
https://www.spillers-feeds.com/products/balancers
https://www.spillers-feeds.com/speedy-mash-fibre
https://www.spillers-feeds.com/weight-management-tools/
We hope this helps, please do get back in touch if you would like any further information or advice.
Thanks, Team SPILLERS
Yes they can be fed alongside each other :) If you feed 2kg for a 350kg pony of the SPEEDY-Mash you wouldn't need to feed the balancer as it is a fully fortified feed and contains all the essential vitamins and minerals :)
Hope this helps, please call us on 01908 226626 for further advice.
Thanks,
Team SPILLERS
I am just switching my boy from Pure Feeds Fibre Balance onto Spiller Lite and Lean. Can the Lite and Lean be fed just on it's own?
Thank you.
Yes it can be fed alone or alongside a chopped fibre.
Best wishes,
Bella
A normal mug/cup does hold 250g however.
Depending on body condition, balancers are typically a very good choice as they offer a low sugar and starch diet, whilst providing optimum levels of vitamins and minerals.
We'd need to know more about your horse before making specific recommendations. Feel free to speak to one of our nutritionists on 01908 226626.
Thanks,
Bella