Overview
Equalizer horse food is a tasty grain-based nutritional supplement that is added to horse feed to make it more nutritious. Always talk to your vet before adding equalizer to your horse's diet. It's known by a variety of names, including balancer feed and ration balancer. It looks and even smells like regular horse feed, but that is so the horse will eat it.
Who Needs It
Horses that could benefit from equalizer horse feed include horses doing heavy work but living on poor pasture, foals and growing young horses, breeding stallions and broodmares. These horses are expending a tremendous amount of energy either to grow, to work or to breed, and so need an extra bit of nutritional energy. Other horses who may need it (if your vet concurs) include horses who live mostly on good pasture grass only, horses who need fattening up after a long illness and horses living outside in winter.
Ingredients
Equalizer includes a variety of vitamins, minerals, nutritional supplements, edible oils, herbs, protein and various meals made from vegetable sources like wheat, alfalfa hay and dehulled soybeans. Only some varieties will include salt. These are made like regular horse feed or "sweet feed" in that they are made into a hot soupy mixture, then air-dried or air-baked and cut up into tiny pellets.
Misconceptions
Equalizer feed is not meant to be the only food given to the horse. It will not supply their nutritional needs or give them enough calories, and it may produce colic, diarrhea or other digestive problems if given too much. Equalizer feeds are to be used in addition to pasture, hay, and a base feed such as oats or beet pulp.
Types
Most major manufacturers of horse and livestock feeds also make a variety of ration balancers or equalizer feeds. These include Purina Triple Crown, Buckeye, ProAdvantage, Seminole, Equiscience Solutions and Pennfield. Not all equalizers will have the same ingredients, so you must read the fine print in order to be sure your horse is getting what you want him to get. Some will be formulated more for horses kept at pasture than those who are already used to a grain-based diet.
Warning
Equalizer or ration balancer feed supplements are not meant to substitute for poor or cheap horse feed. Also, by adding equalizer to cheap feed (like horse corn), you will not make the cheap feed any better for your horse. You still need to get quality oats, quality hay and access to good water in order to get the best out of the equalizer feed. The human equivalent would be taking multivitamins while living entirely on fast food. In the end, the human will not be getting the nutrition he needs.
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