Guest blog Vitalbix: How to choose a good balancer?

A balancer is meant to restore the balance in your horse's diet. This means: replenishing the vitamins and minerals that are not present in the roughage or grass, tailored to your horse's needs. Madelief from Vitalbix tells AskHeltie how to make a good choice for your horse.

"If you only feed your horse roughage, there is a high chance of deficiencies," says Madelief. "The soil is poor in minerals such as copper, zinc, and selenium. Horses that are not out on pasture also usually do not get enough vitamin A, D, and E. These deficiencies in minerals and vitamins are often not immediately visible, but only come to the surface in the longer term. This can lead to various problems, such as a low immune system, poor hooves or coat, and weaker muscles, tendons, and bones. It sometimes takes years before a deficiency becomes a problem and you do not always see it very well. Therefore, use a balancer to timely replenish the deficiencies."

How do you determine what is needed?

"If you have a consistent batch of hay, you can have it analyzed including the minerals. Then you can choose a suitable balancer. That is the best way." However, not everyone has this option, Madelief acknowledges. "If a hay analysis is not feasible, or if different batches are fed each time, then you can use the average roughage. At Vitalbix, we use the CVB tables for horses and ponies. These tables contain the average values for a horse's needs and the average values of the substances present in the roughage. With these averages, Vitalbix calculates what should be in the balancer," she explains. "In 9 out of 10 cases, this works fine. In exceptional cases, the hay may differ sometimes, but if you only feed small batches of it, it's not a big deal. In addition, you can often easily solve any deviations with a supplement alongside your roughage and balancer." For many horses, a balancer based on this calculation is fine.

What should be in a balancer?

"There are a number of minerals and vitamins that you definitely want in a balancer. So always check if they are listed on the packaging. A balancer should contain sufficient copper, zinc, selenium, vitamin A, [D]("https://askheltie.com/vitamine-d-aanmaak-bij-paarden-zon-blijk...