Why We Use a Ration Balancer at Infinity Equine

At Infinity Equine, one of the most common questions we receive from horse owners is:

“Why do you feed a ration balancer instead of a traditional grain or fortified concentrate?”

The answer is simple: because our goal is to provide horses with the nutrients they need without feeding unnecessary calories.

Understanding Your Horse’s Nutritional Needs

Hay should always form the foundation of a horse’s diet. Good-quality forage provides the majority of the calories, fibre, and digestive support that horses need to thrive. However, even excellent hay is often deficient in key vitamins and minerals.

Here in Alberta, forage is commonly deficient in important nutrients such as copper, zinc, and vitamin E. Selenium levels can also vary significantly depending on where the forage was grown. While a horse may appear to be maintaining weight well on hay alone, they can still be deficient in essential nutrients that support hoof quality, immune function, reproduction, muscle development, and overall health.

This is where a ration balancer comes in.

A ration balancer is designed to “balance” the forage portion of the diet by supplying essential vitamins and minerals that may be missing from hay and pasture. At Infinity Equine, we use the Mad Barn Premix vitamin and mineral supplement as the foundation of our feeding program.

Unlike many pelleted ration balancers, Mad Barn Premix is a concentrated vitamin and mineral supplement and is not intended to be a significant source of calories or protein. This allows us to build each horse’s diet individually rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all feeding program.

Best of all, the Mad Barn Premix vitamin and mineral supplement is included with your board at Infinity Equine.

Why Not Just Feed More Grain or Fortified Concentrates?

Many horses do not actually need large amounts of grain and/or fortified concentrates.

When horses are fed grain and/or fortified concentrates primarily to deliver vitamins and minerals, they often receive more calories than they require. This can contribute to:

• Unwanted weight gain

• Increased excitability in some horses

• Metabolic concerns

• Digestive upset

• Increased risk of hindgut imbalance

• Higher feed costs

For horses prone to gastric ulcers, diets higher in non-structural carbohydrates (NSC)—which include starches and sugars commonly found in many traditional grain and fortified concentrate feeds—may also increase ulcer risk when compared to forage-based feeding programs. While not all concentrates are high in NSC, many traditional performance feeds and sweet feeds contain significantly more starch and sugar than a forage-based ration balanced with a vitamin and mineral supplement.

By using a ration balancer, we can provide the nutrients horses need while allowing calories to be added separately and only when necessary.

Ration Balancer vs. Fortified Concentrate

It is important to understand that a ration balancer is not the same thing as a fortified concentrate.

While both provide vitamins and minerals, fortified concentrates are designed to provide significant calories in addition to nutrients. They are intended for horses that require additional energy to maintain body condition or support performance.

A vitamin and mineral premix, such as the Mad Barn Premix we feed at Infinity Equine, is designed to provide essential nutrients with very few calories. This allows us to build diets from the ground up, adding calories only when necessary and in forms best suited to the individual horse.

This approach gives us much greater flexibility when feeding easy keepers, horses prone to ulcers, horses with metabolic concerns, growing horses, broodmares, seniors, and performance horses.

Supporting Muscle Development

Proper muscle development requires more than simply feeding additional calories. Horses require adequate high-quality protein and essential amino acids to build and maintain muscle, topline, and overall body condition.

Because we use a vitamin and mineral premix rather than a pelleted ration balancer, we can evaluate each horse individually and determine whether additional protein is needed based on factors such as:

• Age

• Workload

• Reproductive status

• Body condition

• Muscle development

• Hay quality

• Medical history

For horses requiring additional protein, we can add appropriate protein sources separately. Depending on the horse’s needs, this may include feeds such as alfalfa, soybean meal, or other carefully selected ingredients.

This allows us to meet each horse’s specific requirements without unnecessarily increasing calories or feeding nutrients they may not need.

Every Horse Is Different

At Infinity Equine, we do not believe in a one-size-fits-all feeding program.

Some horses require additional calories. Others need carefully controlled diets due to metabolic concerns, ulcers, weight management challenges, reproductive demands, age-related changes, or other health conditions.

By starting with a vitamin and mineral premix as the nutritional foundation, we can customize each horse’s diet to meet their individual needs.

This approach allows us to support:

• Healthy body condition

• Proper muscle development

• Digestive health

• Hoof quality

• Immune function

• Reproductive health

• Overall wellness

  
  

Learn More

If you’d like a deeper dive into ration balancers and how they help fill nutritional gaps in your horse’s diet, we highly recommend listening to this excellent podcast episode:

Ration Balancers Explained: The Key to Filling Nutrient Gaps in Your Horse’s Diet⁠

Another fantastic resource is the Mad Barn Nutrition Library⁠. It is a free Canadian resource filled with evidence-based articles on horse nutrition, feeding management, forage, supplements, and common equine health concerns. We frequently use it ourselves as a trusted source of nutritional information.

Our Philosophy

At Infinity Equine, we strive to feed horses based on their nutritional requirements—not marketing trends.

Rather than starting with a bag of feed and hoping it works for every horse, we start with forage, balance the diet using the Mad Barn Premix vitamin and mineral supplement, and then customize calories and protein based on the individual horse standing in front of us.

This approach allows us to provide nutrition that is practical, cost-effective, forage-focused, and tailored to each horse’s unique needs.

Because we believe proper nutrition is fundamental to horse health, the Mad Barn Premix vitamin and mineral supplement is included as part of every board package at Infinity Equine.

If you have questions about your horse’s feeding program, we’d be happy to discuss how a ration balancer may fit into their diet.

A Final Note

The feeding program at Infinity Equine has been developed in consultation with veterinary and equine nutrition professionals and is based on current research and best practices in equine nutrition. However, we are not veterinarians, and any horse with specific medical concerns should be managed in consultation with their veterinarian and other appropriate professionals.

We recognize that every horse owner has their own preferences when it comes to feeding. While the Mad Barn Premix vitamin and mineral supplement is included in our board program and serves as the foundation of our feeding philosophy, participation is entirely optional. Owners are welcome to provide alternative feeds or supplements if they prefer.

Our goal is not to dictate how you feed your horse, but to provide a well-researched, forage-first nutrition program that we believe offers excellent value and supports long-term equine health. We are always happy to work with owners to develop a feeding plan that meets the needs of both horse and owner.