Twice now they have left brochures and feed samples in my barn.
I did get a price quote of $29-31.00 a bag.
Is anybody here using the feed???
I seriously don’t know anyone who is or where it is sold at???
I used to for a short while.
Here’s an interesting thread about it.
Honestly it is not as good as they claim it to be, very high in sugars & starch and not worth its price I concluded.
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=248516&highlight=cavalor
Very pricey, and the fact that it is shipped from europe makes me twitchy. Also find it very difficult to keep a consistent supply.
That said, I know a few ULR’s who use it, and I’ve seen what it can do. They are on 1/4 the portion of grain they used to be. These are fit upper level horses.
Read the thread thanks, when I asked rep if it was reginally prepared she said …“its made in Belgium”? so she had no idea what Regionally prepared meant…kind scary.
Plus the price for me to feed 23 horses ages weanlings, in-foal mares to 7yr competing horses is just over the top.
Our hay here in the USA is of excellant quality and we have such a diverse supply of quality feeds that don’t need to sit in a dock or on a boat before I feed it!!!
It’s shipped over from Europe which is why it’s so expensive (as someone else posted). Good feed but hard to find a dealer, I know some have arranged after leaving my area (Wellington) at the end of season to have their local dealer get it in or have it shipped to them at the farm…but I’m sure that will add more money. I’ve fed a bit of it (my friend works at the feed store here in FL who carries it and has brought samples) but I can’t say I’d justify the cost of it versus feeds that are made here in the US as they would be fresher. I do like the mash mix though, and they seem to have some pretty good supplements in their product line as well.
This is random, but I had a look at their website and they say that their products should be fed with at least X amount of hay and Y amount of straw. What …? I … straw? What kind of straw do they feed?
I think we have plenty GOOD grain suppliers right here in the US…
Pennfield
Blue Seal
Triple Crown
Seminole
Buck Eye
Just to name a few…why would anyone feel the need to have grain shipped in from Europe??? Does anyone know if the big barns in Europe actually use this company?
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Yes they do, it’s a common feed in Belgium/The Netherlands. The word is Anky’s barn uses it too.
From my experience Europe has good & decent feeds for the healthy fit performance horses. Europe’s feed manufacturers lack BIG time in providing feeds for the challenged horses, like the ones with EPSM, IR, etc.
Owners of such horses have to go to great lengths to find a low starch feed. At present the only maker of a low starch feed I am aware of is St Hippolyt in Germany and it’s not even distributed all over Europe. Dodson & Horrell have an acceptable low starch option too. (UK feeds definitely have my preference over mainland feeds)
The other big names like Cavalor, Havens, Pavo, have nothing for that, they are really geared towards, super fit, high energy burning performance horses.
They do offer low protein feeds 10%max, which they recommend for the leisure horses, but low protein can still be high sugar, high starch.
In my experience the US is blessed with far better feed options than what’s being shipped over from Europe for sale here.
It’s pointless in my opinion that they try to get a part of the US market. Why? And like many say why would an owner want to pay the extra $'s for a feed that’s isn’t necessarily superior.
@ Scaramouch
Mainland Europe doesn’t have lots of the chopped forage options yet, like we have here Dengie, TC forage etc.
I don’t think Cavalor claims to be a complete feed, hence the additonal forage recommendation (my guess however).
I had the rep out. I find the feed to be a nice quality and like the general idea of it. BUT, after doing the math, my $400 a month feed bill would go up to $900 a month :eek:!!! Even after doing the math of cutting grain back by a third (as I am told this feed will eventually allow), it is still a significant increase. I don’t think my customers would be very happy if I raised their board to cover that increase!
The fact of the matter is, I am still VERY happy with the feed I use (Pennfield). And the idea of it getting shipped from Europe makes me a little twitchy…she did mention that the last shipment was late because of the strikes in France! Pennfield is made basically up the road, my dealer is 20 minutes away, and the horses love it. I guess I’m sticking with what I’ve got! Why fix what ain’t broke, right? 
The feed is good - is it better than anything else? um. no. - it might just be the “next big thing” - flavor of the month. the ULR I used to work for uses it and the horses ate it up - so that’s a good thing 
I was not impressed with the sales rep, though - nothing personal - you can PM me if you want details.
Hello everyone,
I am the new manager of Cavalor in North America. Wanted to follow up on a few points:
While Cavalor feed may not be a fit for everyone or every barn, it is truly unlike any other product available in the states. I have been sponsored by other manufacturers for years, and only decided to get involved with This company after they fixed feeding problems I have struggled with for a very long time.
On the cost calculations, you need to keep in mind that while you will certainly use less grain(due to digestibility) you are also going to be cutting out much of the supplements that many of us use. For example, you will have a total supply of both pre and probiotics, and although many companies claim this…the methods of application is what makes the difference. Also, we have done extensive research and paid particular attention to how our feeds affect gastric and colonic ulcers, and I can attest to the fact that you will have far fewer of these types of issues on Cavalor feeds. Any one who has treated ulcers knows wh at this cost and the whole prevention vs cure adage holds true.
As far as sugar and starch…there are less than 3 percent molasses in all cavalor feeds. You need only to put your hand in our feed bag and then one of our competitors to feel the difference, and although we have higher labeled starches, they actually produce a better blood glucose result than the common " low starch" feed. This is due to the process we use for all cereals in our feeds. You will also find feeds in the Cavalor line(strucomix) that can be used as a complete feed, but we always recommend horses to be fed hay where available.
While some of you may have had a bad experience dealing with the company in the past I would ask you to give us a try again. We are located in the States and I am eager to make our organization as good as our product.
Best regards: Michael pollard
855-cavalor
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My horse on Cavalor.
They say you can feed less and get the same results. I disagree. Maybe if your horse is an air fern notorious for looking good on 2 year old hay and a salt lick as someone once said.
Needless to say, we have changed back to an american based-feed.
Horse is a middle-aged thoroughbred, 17hh and was 1180lbs in the first pic. Draw your own conclusions.
I’d definitely try it if it were available in my area, but it’s not so I won’t. I currently feed a ration balancer and my own mix that I tailor to each horse. (Copra, beet pulp, flax, kelp, oats, alfalfa)
I can’t quite get super interested because of the website/ product descriptions. I get the feeling that it’s written by either an English speaking European or a non-horse savvy marketing team.
http://www.cavalor.com/extended-product-information.php?product=65&subcategory=17
[QUOTE=Kolsch;6363199]
I’d definitely try it if it were available in my area, but it’s not so I won’t. I currently feed a ration balancer and my own mix that I tailor to each horse. (Copra, beet pulp, flax, kelp, oats, alfalfa)
I can’t quite get super interested because of the website/ product descriptions. I get the feeling that it’s written by either an English speaking European or a non-horse savvy marketing team.
http://www.cavalor.com/extended-product-information.php?product=65&subcategory=17[/QUOTE]
Where are you located?
I’m located in Northeastern Vermont.
While it may be a good feed – why one earth one would want to go European for this is beyond me. It’s quality is not worth it, we have great companies here in the US. Support our economy, it’s the smart thing to do.
I Had a rep come by my farm. I asked what the NSC rating was of his feeds… he also started going on about ‘Strucomix’, but didn’t answer my question directly.
Friend of mine has her horse on the mash n’ mix. And gorgeous lush pasture. Horse definitely does NOT eat less of the cavalor by volume than, say, any pennfields product. And she’s no less fizzy either.
The toughest thing in my area is that the feed is hard to come by. For whatever reason, some feed dealers pick it up, then drop it within the year. My friend has had to change suppliers 3x in the 2 years she’s been using it.
I can’t imagine why Cavalor would want to enter our feed market. With several excellent feed companies already in place the competition must be tough. I can imagine that there’s a true need for people who compete a lot in Europe, but otherwise I imagine it a hard sell. If there were a main distributor, or they teamed up with a more local producer (more for distribution potential than savings in transporting the feed from Europe), then i could see the feed being accepted more by the masses.
Personally I like the looks of a museli type of feed and would be intrigued to see how my horses do on it. I’d try a few bags, but I’m not going to drive out of my way to get it, unless it is truly majikal. (Which is doubtful.) I tend to go the “mix my own” route because although we do have a plethora of excellent feeds available, mixing my own lets me customize fat/carb/fiber ratios in regard to workload and hay quality without having to switch feeds.
IMHO Cavalor is just the new feed dujour. I’ve used Progressive Nutrition for 5 1/2 years and my horses have looked great. I received a phone call from a friend who uses Cavalor. She was trying to convert me. I have no reason to change. By feeding Progressive, I have access to the feed at my local store, it is made in the US and I have access to Don Kapper (Progressive’s nutritionist) who is only a phone call away. Plus, Don visits the area periodically and will stop out to see my horses if I have questions. Progressive is more expensive, but I do feed less.
Cavalor may be a great feed, but why change when I am happy with what I am feeding? As an aside, I do have to feed good quality hay at 2% body weight daily. Progressive is meant to be fed with good hay, not instead of it. Maybe the people who are dissatisfied with Cavalor need to up their hay? Dunno.
I’ve been using cavalor for three years, ever since I spoke to the representatives at the FEI World Cup in Omaha in 2017. That was the same year our old mare nearly died from a bad batch of purina senior horse feed. My husband and I did a lot of research after that on countless brands sold in the United States.
what we found was just plain scary. Even brands, like Triple Crown, which had once manufactured feed in their own plant were now contracting mills across the country, usually the cheapest bids. This means feed is processed at a mill in the midwest one month and another state the next. Why does this matter? These mills also feed cattle feed, most if which is toxic to horses. If you’ve never smelled cattle feed it’s got a very distinctive smell and that smell is one of the additives that can kill or seriously harm a horse.
this is not showing up in horse feed on purpose, but because the equipment isn’t always cleaned sufficiently and small amounts end up in your horse feed endangering your horse. With all the molasses in horse feed today it can easily disguise the smell of cattle feed remnants in the feed.
Cavalor feed is made in a European plant and the bag of feed you buy can literally track where every ingredient was sourced from, but more importantly no cattle feed is processed there.
What it came down to was how much did our horses mean to us. We now feed only Cavalor feed to our four horses. Yes it is expensive, but we don’t have CD to feed supplements and we don’t have health issues caused by feed. We are on a fixed income so high quality Cavalor actually costs us less than playing Russian roulette with other feeds. If we can’t feed cavalor due to delays or shortages we feed straight oats, it’s the only horse feed that we can actually tell if there is a problem as soon as we open the bag. That being said we have even had to return two or three bags to feed stores due to cattle feed remnants in the oats. That means disinfecting feed tubes and scoops as well as feed storage containers. So yes American feed is high quality and probably cheaper, but until that feed is processed the way Cavalor is with strict quality control we won’t take a chance with it. In a fifty year plus career with horses I will continue to be a Cavalor customer. Our horses are healthy with beautiful coats and the days of supplements and additives are in the past for us. Cavalor is incredible feed and I am grateful for every bag I feed. So if anyone questions the price I just ask them what their horse is worth to them.
