Cheap horse feed and results.

[butiwantedapony]

So, I hate to admit it but about 6 months ago I switched 3 of my horses from the fancy $$$ feed I was feeding to a cheap but balanced sweet feed. I was tired of picky eaters who I constantly had to switch up feeding regimens for and wastage. It actually started when I bought this feed to mix in to the $$$ feed to make it more palatable. Horses just started completely picking out the $$$ feed and leaving it behind so I just abandoned it and decided to see how it went.

The $$$ feed I was feeding prior included Triple crown SR, BS Sentinel LS, Ultium, Poulin equi-pro fibre-max. All of switch I continue to think of as excellent feeds.

Results:

Horse 1 - 30 year old OTTB who is TERRIBLE keeper. He has been nearly impossible to keep a suitable amount of weight on him, despite high quality free choice hay and grass. He has gained a significant amount of weight and looks better than he has in YEARS. He gets a smaller amount of new “cheap” feed than the fancy feeds.

Horse 2 - 5 year old OTTB just off track and severely underweight. Would NOT gain weight on tons of roughage/fancy feed. Within firt 8 weeks of switching to cheaper feed he gained at least 100#. Hoof quality improved drastically.

Horse 3- massive 17h high strung, hard keeping OTTB mare. Hot hot hot no matter what she is fed. Was concerned about switching her to sweet feed but she is currently out of work so I just did it. She was in excellent condition at time of switch. She has continued to thrive and her coat has developed more defined dapples this year than in previous years. No discernible change in hotness/personality other than she is notably calmer about turn in/turn out time, but this may be attributed to the fact that she is always led with a buddy now.

Anyone else have similar experience? Keep in mind these horses are not in work - so hard to gauge if the switch has made them hotter. They are handled daily and I saw ZERO change in personally, except for the old horse who was maybe a hair more sprite- I think he just feels better.

I was very surprised. And happy to save the $$ and reduce wastage. I’m still a bit ashamed to put the empty bags out in my recycling, though

[butiwantedapony]

And, if when back in work (with exception to the retiree), they are hot messes, we can go back to $$$. Its an interesting experiment though, after all these years of feeding the best stuff money can buy.

[JLC]

Just curious - what did you switch to?

[trubandloki]

I would gain weight nicely if my diet was coated in sugar too.

I just figure if I have to eat boring healthy food so does my horse. (Just kidding.)

[beowulf]

Honestly it all depends on what that “cheap feed” is.

I had a very similar situation, few years back. Herd of 4-5 horses at a given time. Fed them all Ultium. Had to feed it by the bucket-ful to keep weight on 3 of them. Like 3-4 pounds a day. Way more than I want to feed for two pasture-puffs and a weekend warrior.

Well, we got sick of paying $$$$$$$$ and Ultium went from $22 to $28 a bag… around that time I moved Weekend Warrior south… I fed him (gasp!!) rolled oats ($14 a 50lb bag) and Omolene 500 ($15 50lb bag) and he was the fattest little sausage.

Meanwhile back home, the remainder of the herd was switched to Poulin Endurance and Poulin FibreMax (both considered midrange but cheap) and all of them are beef cakes.

Current horse, who is in light work, was on Alfalfa cubes (1 qt 3x day) and Blue Seal Sentinel (4qt 4x day) and I STRUGGLED to keep weight on him. STRUGGLED. Finally put him on Poulin FibreMax (2qt 2x day) and he is fat and plump and is in heavy work.

So sometimes it’s just figuring out what feed is right for the horse, not necessarily what price tag. I don’t know why BS Sentinel didn’t work for mine, but it didn’t. And it was expensive. Here’s to more affordable feed - and yes, we want to know what you’re feeding!

[Scribbler]

Back in the day, I fed my pony rather low-quality grass hay, and what now seems like an insane amount of sweet feed (maybe a gallon bucket?). She was however out riding for hours every day, in what we’d call today very heavy work (we galloped everywhere we could, and some places we shouldn’t), and was muscled up, lively, and never had a sick day in her life.

Second time around, horse in moderate work, feeding good quality grass hay, and a mash of alfalfa cubes, small amount of whole oats (1/2 to 1 pound), and supplements. Horse is happy and healthy, but is definitely an easy keeper. With her current life-style, I think she’d blimp out on sweet feed. But if I rode her like I rode my old pony, I expect she’d probably be fine.

The price and the recommended quantities of the packaged brand-name feeds just floors me. Depending on how much I’m feeding, whole oats run me from $8 to $12 per month. My friend who has an OTTB uses a “high-calorie” feed that has as main ingredients alfalfa and soy oil, and goes through a bag per week at a cost of about $80 a month (plus expensive alfalfa and timothy hay). My coach, though, who also has a somewhat neurotic older OTTB, keeps him in good shape with a similar feeding regime to mine (grass hay, small mash).

[Obsidian_Fire]

Makes ya wonder if all these fancy schmancy “horse feeds” whose ingredients start with ‘wheat middlings, soy, etc.’ are really all that good for our horses.

And that “grains” (oats) are perhaps not so bad.

Never have seen a horse eating wheat anyway.

Sorta like all the rigamarole around people food these days.

[Marla_100]

Way back in the Stone Age, like 45-50 yrs. ago, all we had to feed our horses was Sweet Feed. Of course you got a choice of 10, 12, or 14 % protein. Then when the feed companies came out with pelleted feed and the old timers couldn’t tell what they were feeding and were very suspicious, most all of them stuck with the sweet feed. Our horses and ponies all looked great and were super healthy.

[enjoytheride]

Have you looked at some of the TSC brands? Some of their are the exact same thing as the fancy brands just with TSC packaging. Their hoof supplement is almost identical to Farrier’s Formula double strength, and their horse shine is almost identical to Omega’s Horseshine.

[Beckham03]

I was thinking the other day how like 25 years ago, all of our show horses ate Omelene 200. No crazy supplements…just hay and grain. We showed every weekend year round. No one was sick, no colics, no soundness issues. I often wonder if we all overthink things. Lol.

[Texarkana]

There’s something to be said for feeding horses (and people, and other pets) whole, minimally processed foods.

I think the biggest “problem” with sweet feeds is that many companies started overloading them with cracked corn and molasses. Both are very palatable and relatively cheap, yet the combination of the two is just too much for horses who aren’t in heavy work.

[myleetlepony]

I was thinking the other day how like 25 years ago, all of our show horses ate Omelene 200. No crazy supplements…just hay and grain. We showed every weekend year round. No one was sick, no colics, no soundness issues. I often wonder if we all overthink things. Lol.

I think along those lines, too…and how much easier it was! However, I think just as with people food, the companies have quietly changed things over the years and snuck in poorer quality choices and additives that may be questionable. I know Mac and Cheese was a different formula when I was a kid than it is now. I suspect all processed animal foods are different, too.

[butiwantedapony]

I switched them to Blue Seal Rider. It has minimal molasses and corn compared to other sweet feeds. I pay $12.49 per bag at TSC. I was paying $19-25 per bag of feed previously, and using more of it.

All of them have 24/7 access to either grass pasture or good quality, albeit not rich first cut grass/Timothy hay. I will also say that I was and continue to feed a small amount of Calf Manna to these three hard keepers.

I imagine my mare may need to switch back to something with lower sugar content next year when back in work, but we will see. She is a total fire cracker unless kept underweight, and I hate keeping my horses underweight so I deal with the Sparks For now I am saving a ton of money, feeding less grain and my horses are healthier.

[Beckham03]

[QUOTE=myleetlepony;8322635]
I think along those lines, too…and how much easier it was! However, I think just as with people food, the companies have quietly changed things over the years and snuck in poorer quality choices and additives that may be questionable. I know Mac and Cheese was a different formula when I was a kid than it is now. I suspect all processed animal foods are different, too.[/QUOTE]

Sigh. Ya. I’ve thought of that too. Lol.

[findeight]

Back when I was boarding a Western QH in an ASB barn (long story), guy fed about 10 lbs coastal/orchard mix AM and PM, a big flake of alfalfa at noon, maybe 7-8 lbs, and freshly crimped oats also at noon based on individual need. In late spring and early summer when the were growing new coats, he added a half cup of corn oil.

Everything looked great, everything was a show horse with appropriate energy level for their discipline. Must have been there close to five years, very few colics (I had one but it was an impaction caused by a capped tooth, cleared quickly), nothing got anything speshul. Turnout was rocks and cactus or the arena, they were still fine.

Even further back, fed about 20 lbs of alfalfa split into two feedings a day, maybe a pound of sweet feed a day, Was recently looking at some old pictures…they looked fantastic. Never saw or heard of colic.

Think we do overthink this sometines and get influenced by flashy marketing.

[brody]

There absolutely was colic back in the days of sweet feed and oats.

I wore out many pairs of boots walking various horses at various barns on all night walk a thons. I remember horses being sent for surgery and not coming back as well

[Losgelassenheit]

[QUOTE=butiwantedapony;8321473]
I’m still a bit ashamed to put the empty bags out in my recycling, though :)[/QUOTE]

I so know this feeling. :winkgrin:

A while back, we had one of the hardest keeper ponies I’ve ever dealt with. He was getting close to 4 lbs of Ultium per day, in moderate work, excellent health, holding his weight but still not really filling out in the right places. Meanwhile, we had a client who fed the low end Purina 12% pellet to her 3 horses and they were slick, fat, and happy. Having been through every other top feed, we decided what the heck, let’s try it as a last resort.

That pony never looked so good in his life. He finally got a top line, grew a butt, and had a shine to his coat like he’d been soaked in Show Sheen. Same amount of a $9 feed vs. $28. When I tell you I scoured that feed tag. It had the cheapest of ingredients. Wheat middlings, peanut hulls, corn… But the only thing that stood out was the fiber level was one of the highest I’d ever seen, albeit cheap fiber. Other than that, I still don’t understand it.

I, too, was quite ashamed to be seen with that feed brand in the trash. I made sure I stuffed those bags all the way to the bottom of the Ultium bags before putting out for the garbage.

[steelerino]

The horses at my barn (mine included) eat all stock grain and have hay 24-7. I ride my horse 6 days a week and he looks fantastic! I bought him in March and have a 3 month later side by side photo and he doesn’t even look like the same horse. No supplements either :yes:

[Lady_Eboshi]

[QUOTE=butiwantedapony;8321473]
So, I hate to admit it but about 6 months ago I switched 3 of my horses from the fancy $$$ feed I was feeding to a cheap but balanced sweet feed. I was tired of picky eaters who I constantly had to switch up feeding regimens for and wastage. It actually started when I bought this feed to mix in to the $$$ feed to make it more palatable. Horses just started completely picking out the $$$ feed and leaving it behind so I just abandoned it and decided to see how it went.

The $$$ feed I was feeding prior included Triple crown SR, BS Sentinel LS, Ultium, Poulin equi-pro fibre-max. All of switch I continue to think of as excellent feeds.

Results:

Horse 1 - 30 year old OTTB who is TERRIBLE keeper. He has been nearly impossible to keep a suitable amount of weight on him, despite high quality free choice hay and grass. He has gained a significant amount of weight and looks better than he has in YEARS. He gets a smaller amount of new “cheap” feed than the fancy feeds.

Horse 2 - 5 year old OTTB just off track and severely underweight. Would NOT gain weight on tons of roughage/fancy feed. Within firt 8 weeks of switching to cheaper feed he gained at least 100#. Hoof quality improved drastically.

Horse 3- massive 17h high strung, hard keeping OTTB mare. Hot hot hot no matter what she is fed. Was concerned about switching her to sweet feed but she is currently out of work so I just did it. She was in excellent condition at time of switch. She has continued to thrive and her coat has developed more defined dapples this year than in previous years. No discernible change in hotness/personality other than she is notably calmer about turn in/turn out time, but this may be attributed to the fact that she is always led with a buddy now.

Anyone else have similar experience? Keep in mind these horses are not in work - so hard to gauge if the switch has made them hotter. They are handled daily and I saw ZERO change in personally, except for the old horse who was maybe a hair more sprite- I think he just feels better.

I was very surprised. And happy to save the $$ and reduce wastage. I’m still a bit ashamed to put the empty bags out in my recycling, though :)[/QUOTE]

As I have a mixture of EXACTLY these types of horses, I’ve been following this thread with great interest. Upon seeing that the magic bag is Blue Seal “Rider,” I jumped in the truck, went up to my local feed dealer, and said, “WooHoo! We’re goin’ OLD SKOOL!” :lol:

Considering the drought here (have already been haying for 45 days; usually it’s early October to begin), the heat and the flies my crew summered better than I had ANY right to expect–on a mixture of Blue Seal Dynasty Pro Pellets and Hay Stretcher. I’ve got a younger crowd than sometimes, so I’m going to switch over to the “Rider” slowly and see what happens going into winter.

Likes: WAY LESS STICKY= less molasses than sweet feed used to have. Lots of pellets in it anyway for the imperfect chewers.

Some whole oats help A LOT with manure management believe it or not–less chain dragging since the birds go through very thoroughly and scatter a lot of it.

Lower fat content. I have NEVER believed a horse metabolizes oils well, as there is neither a requirement nor a source for any in nature. What they DO metabolize is forage, and the bulk number for this feed as up there as OP mentions.

Wish I could get it for 12-something here though; $15.49 where I am still beats the SMACK out of $18.00 for the Dynasty Pro and $23.00 for TcSr.

Wishing OP’s horses shiny coats with puff-printed dapples for winter!

[beowulf]

re; oats. While I was feeding my guy oats I always had to look very hard for his manure. Usually by the time I got to it after morning chores the birds had already turned it into nothing!

Ps I had to laugh at the no colic back in my day types… Maybe back in those days those posters didn’t know what colicky horses looked like… I’ve for sure walked plenty of colicking horses, in all walks of life and feed regimens.