GWF Nutrition Equilibra 500 + Omega 3 20kg, Premium Horse Feed Balancer

GWF Nutrition Equilibra 500 + Omega 3 – 20kg

Equilibra is GWF's feed balancer, and the one they claim started the category over thirty years ago. It is a 2mm pellet built to sit on top of a forage and fibre diet: more than forty ingredients, chelated trace minerals, added lysine, threonine and methionine, yeast products, fructo-oligosaccharides and seaweed meal.

GWF's analytical constituents are 16.3% crude protein, 6.0% crude oils and fats, 12.1% crude fibre, 9.7% crude ash and 9.1% starch, with omega 3 and 6 fatty acids at 3.1%. Feeding is set out by height rather than weight, from 50g for a foal to 600g for a horse over 16.2hh.

Performance & Benefits

• More than forty ingredients, including chelated zinc, manganese, copper and selenium.
• Added lysine, threonine and methionine — the limiting amino acids on a forage diet.
• Yeast products and fructo-oligosaccharides for hindgut function.
• 2.5% Oatinol in the oil fraction, with omega 3 and 6 fatty acids at 3.1%.
• Calcium 1.5%, phosphorus 0.5%, magnesium 0.4% and sodium 0.3%.
• Wheat free, and fed in a small daily measure rather than by the scoop.

Suitable For

• Horses and ponies kept mainly on forage and fibre.
• Horses fed under the recommended rate of a compound feed.
• Broodmares and performance horses — GWF publish rates for both.
• Foals from four weeks old, at 50g a day.
• Not to be fed alongside GWF OneCup or any other balancer; choose one of them.

Feeding

• Foals from four weeks: 50g daily. Ponies 10–12hh: 250g daily.
• Ponies and horses 12–16.2hh: 350g daily. Horses 14–16.2hh: 500g. Horses over 16.2hh: 600g.
• GWF's own table overlaps between the 12–16.2hh and 14–16.2hh bands; feed to the horse's type and condition within that range.
• Split the daily amount across regular feeds and introduce gradually over about five days.
• Fresh water at all times.

Composition & Analysis

• Composition: over forty ingredients, including micronised beet pulp, black oats, linseed expeller, sunflower seed meal, oat bran, molasses, vegetable oils and fats with 2.5% Oatinol, calcium carbonate, salt, yeast products, seaweed meal, fructo-oligosaccharides, lysine, threonine and methionine, and chelated zinc, manganese, copper and selenium.
• Analytical constituents: crude protein 16.3%, crude oils and fats 6.0%, crude fibre 12.1%, crude ash 9.7%, starch 9.1%, omega 3 and 6 fatty acids 3.1%, calcium 1.5%, phosphorus 0.5%, magnesium 0.4%, sodium 0.3%.
• GWF publish no sugar figure for Equilibra, so none is given here.
• GWF now list this product as Equilibra Feed Balancer. The 500 + Omega 3 name in our title is the earlier name for the same 20kg balancer.
• Supplied in 20kg bags, the only pack size GWF list.

Care & Caution

• GWF state that Equilibra and OneCup must not be fed together, and that Equilibra should not be combined with other balancers — the risk is toxic levels of minerals such as copper and selenium.