Why You Should Feed a Balancer

Many horse owners now feed a balancer, this article explains what equine feed balancers are and why they are important.

Equine feed balancers are designed to complement a horse's normal feed ration. Feed balancers contain essential amino acids needed for muscle and tissue growth and repair. A feed balancer also contains anti oxidants which help remove toxins from the horse's body and ingredients which promote healthy hoof growth such as biotin, calcium and methionine. Other ingredients of balancers can include MSM, B Vitamins and equine prebiotics and yeasts for maintaining a healthy gut and omega 3 for a healthy shiny coat.

Many horses's pastures do not include the right mixture of minerals and vitamins that are needed to provide a balanced nutrient intake. For example some pastures are lacking in selenium or magnesium and this in turn can cause health and behavioural issues. Feeding an equine balancer can help plug this gap.

Feeding a balancer also helps provide vitmains and minerals to a horse's diet without the need to overfeed concentrates that are high in cereals and therefore high in starch. Horse's are not designed to eat cereals, overfeeing cereals can increase the risk of gastric ulcers and colic. Using less concentrate, feeding more fibre (such as speedi beet) and a good feed balancer can reduces the risks posed by cereals.

Most horse feed concentrates don't contain pro-biotics but surprisingly many feed balancers DO NOT contain pro-biotics, simply yeast. It is crucial to feed true probiotics to optimise gut health in a horse. One feed balancer that contains two true pro-biotics in Acidophilus and Bifidobacterium is 365 Complete from Equine Answers.

You can view the benefits of 365 Complete at www.equineanswers.co.uk.