What ration balancer is sold locally?

I have to say, I am down right handicapped when it comes to equine nutrition. Since there are so many choices out there and everyone has their opinions, tell me where you buy an RB?

I live in a fairly suburban neighborhood. I recently got a new horse. After all the talk of RB's on this board, I was curious, what does it provide that a normal concentrated feed doesn't? Also, in an area not exactly over run with feed store choices, does TSC carry a RB?

Currently The Frog Man is being fed a crap load of free choice high quality (tested) hay. He is also eating the sprouts of grass where he can dig them out of the snow *laugh* As far as feed goes, he is currently being fed 3# Blue Seal Trotter and 1.5# soaked beet pulp shreds. He doesn't care for the beet pulp but I am pretty sure I am going to cut it out after this bag is gone anyways. While I was concerned that he may have been a hard keeper (he is thin right now) he has packed on the pounds in the past few days. I think the beet pulp will be redundant considering all the extra forage he is getting.

So, educate me.

What can I get at TSC (just about the only feed store in my area....the other is a mill and will mix you up the sweetest of sweetfeeds)

Why is it better than a concentrated feed?

What is the cost?

How does it affect the horse? Hot? Calm?

My horse will have a light work load...plugging me around on trails maybe twice a week. How many calories will he typically need?

Fire away nutritional people. I am clueless.

What brands of feed does your TSC sell?

RBs basically provide vitamins and minerals to your horse on about 1lb per day. It's usually a little expensive, but it will save you some money in the long run because of the amount you feed. You can feed a RB by itself or with oats or beet pulp (at least that's what the directions say on Seminole's RB). You could also use other stuff to provide calories if your horse still needs some extra energy or weight, like alfalfa. Otherwise, if he maintains a good weight on the RB I wouldn't give him anything else except forage of course. For the amount of work he's doing I wouldn't think he would need extra energy.

I would prefer a RB over sweet feed and some other types of feeds because of the starch and sugar other feeds contain that can make a horse hyper, colic, tie-up, etc. Basically, feeds higher in fat and fiber and lower in NSC are more digestible.

Although you can only get Seminole feed regionally, here is a link to their RB and regular sweet feed so you can get an idea of the ingredients.

RB:
Seminole Equalizer - Ration Balancer for horses

Sweet feed:
http://www.seminolefeed.com/ProductS...orWeb/SS10.htm

Not sure about the Tractor Supply near Cori but the one near me carries some Nutrena products and I think some Purina products. I do not think they carry Seminole products.


PS, Cori, Love Frog Man..fun different name.

Cori if you pm mw your zip code I can prob help you

TSC should be able to order either
Nutrena's balancer or Purina's enrich32 for you
You might be able to get Buckeye's Gro N Win
Triple Crown's 30% Supplement

Most Ration Balancers are around $25 per 50lb bag adn that bag will last the average horse 35 to 50 days

The NSC on ration balancers is low so it shouldn't make your horse hot

Being that he is thin now I would offer free choice hay/pasture and start with the ration balancer and if you find he needs more then that then add in a fat source like Empower Fat Supplement(I forget the name of it) or Manna Pro's Max E Glo and maybe some hay pellets I use timothy

Good luck and enjoy that pretty boy

I don't believe they sell Seminole that far North, they generally sell around the South East. As far as Nutrena, I'm not sure if they have a RB or not, but here is Purina's:

Here's Purina's Enrich 12:
Purina Horse Feeds - NATURE'S ESSENTIALS

And Purina's Enrich 32:
Purina Horse Feeds - NATURE'S ESSENTIALS

The difference between them is they're designed for different types of forage diets I believe. Other nutrition people can tell you better than I can!

PS: I love Froggy too! :]

My TSC sells Purina Enrich.

TSC also carries Calf Manna, which a lot of people use.

Nutrena is now making the Empower Balancer a rice bran based one ... with soybean hulls and wheat midds as second and thrid ingredient... the rep wasn't sure what to say when I asked why they were using fillers in what is suppose to be a premuim product. Nutrena generally has a better vitamin/mineral profile then Purina but I only breifly galanced at the tag this weekend too much going on at RTTH to "study" it and the rep wouldnt' let me take the tag off the bag :(

Peggy, is this what you are talking about?

Nutrena: Products - Horses - Empower Supplements - Empower? Balance


From the Purina Enrich 32
CRUDE PROTEINMIN32.00%LYSINEMIN2.70%CRUDE FATMAX5.00%CRUDE FIBERMIN5.50%CALCIUM (CA)MIN2.85%CALCIUM (CA)MAX3.85%PHOSPHORUS MIN1.60%COPPER (CU) MIN185PPMSELENIUM (SE)MIN1.50PPMZINC (ZN)MIN500PPMVITAMIN AMIN24000IU/LBVITAMIN EMIN500IU/LB
From the Nutrena Empower Balance
Crude Protein 30.0% Lysine 2.2% Methionine 0.6% Threonine 1.2% Crude Fat 5.0% Crude Fiber max. 8.0% Calcium min. 3.0% - max. 3.5% Phosphorus 1.5% Copper 250 ppm Zinc 750 ppm Selenium 2.5 ppm Vitamin A 18,000 IU/lb Vitamin D 1,800 IU/lb Vitamin E 600 IU/lb Biotin 1.5 mg/lb

ETA - They copy and pasted so nicely in cute little charts....but certainly not showing up that way.


I want to add a question to Cori's list (I hope you do not mind, Cori).

If you have a horse going back into work after some time off and they are lacking in muscle, what do they really need to make sure they have what they need for proper muscle development?

Nutrition wise
Amino acids aka proteins Lysine, Methionine, Threonine
But added fat will help calories and cool energy giving them the energy they need to work and the calories needed not to lose weight at the same time without the other effects grain can cause


Proper nutrition is only part of it though

Peggy - your response does not answer the question.