I buy 100# of whole fax seed at a time, and keep it in a trash can on the feed room. I grind 2 cups AM/PM, and that gives everyone 1/2 cup at each feeding. Takes about 2 minutes to grind each cup. Worth it!!
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Can they eat it dry, then? It doesnāt get too powdery and cause the gumming issue that the TC ground flax does?
Also, what do you use to grind it?
I use a coffee grinder 
and it doesnāt grind if up really fine.
Can I ask how much you pay from the feed mill? We donāt have one around here so limited. I buy the stabilized ground flax and pay $36 for a 2 gallon bucket. Lasts a couple of months feeding 1/3 cup a day.
I grind it in a blender, which works great! I have one with a plastic carafe. Anything smaller isnāt convenient, because it simply doesnāt hold enough.
They lick up their buckets! You DO need to wash out your buckets that you mix your feed in each feeding, however, or they will get nasty.
My friend feeds beet pulp that needs to be soaked. She has an old fridge in the barn that she soaks it in overnight and during the day. Keeps iceboots in the freezer. Keeps the beet pulp from going rancid in the summer and keeps it from freezing in the winter. That may be an option if you want to soak the alfalfa pellets overnight. You can probably get a cheap smaller apartment sized one on Craigslist
I get 50 lb bags of whole flax for about $30. I grind mine in a Walmart coffee grinder right before I feed it. I donāt grind it into powder but I wish the coffee grinder held more. However it takes less than 15 seconds to grind a half cup so not that much time. I think in comparison to ground stabilized flax you need to compare weight and not volume. Grinding it fluffs it up.
This is one of my biggest gripes with feed and supplement suppliers - please let us know if your measurements are BY WEIGHT or BY VOLUME!!! Also, with folks who loosely use the word āscoopā - one scoop to you may be three to me and one-half of one to someone else! Can we discuss it in weight instead, please? Then weāre all on the same page.
So along this gripe fest line, the small scoops typically enclosed with supplements - if they have a measurement amount on them (like 4 oz.) are we to assume itās by volume? Or did they weight their product and that scoop holds four ounces by weight? Inquiring minds spend too much time analyzing recommended amounts.
And then there are those rare case where one pound equals sixteen ounces - by volume.
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A half cup of whole flax weighs about 3oz 
I have a really cool digital scale that Iāve been using ever since this whole thing came up and found that trying to decipher amounts was a little frustrating. I have several different scoops that are now marked with both volume and weight of whichever item Iām using it for, thanks to the scale. The ground flax is really light, and a four ounce scoop only weighs two to three ounces, depending on how tightly itās packed in there. Feeding directions are 6 oz to one pound per 1000 lbs (my mare weighs1350), so Iām assuming the six oz are by weight, not volume, which makes for a LOT of flax per twice-daily meal. Right now theyāre just getting the one scoop at each feeding, so about 4 - 5 oz (by weight) per day. Not sure Iāll increase that? I donāt know how much it actually takes to make any sort of difference, and of course with it being short-light season now, really hard to decipher a change in coat quality.
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I would start with 6oz (1c a day). 1lb of flax a day is a lot and Iām not sure there is ever a time where you would need to feed that much.
Iām curious about where people buy their flax as well. I called around to local feed mills, farm stores, and even a specialty bird store. The only local place that could get it for me was a bulk foods store that can order it in for me for $65+tax for 50 pounds ground or $23+tax for 25 pounds whole. I see it for sale online at $33 or $35 for a 50 pound bag, but that is pick-up in store only as the shipping is astronomical. Do most feed mills have this?
Hoping there is a less expensive answer here!
Local farmersā co-op.
~$35/50#.
A study came out years ago that reported a reduction in skin allergies in horses that were fed 1lb of milled flax daily. Presumably from the omega 3ās.
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I have a similar system where I mix feed into smaller buckets and then dump in tubs in each horseās stall. I also carry a bucket of hot water and a cup with me. Once I dump the horseās feed, I pour the hot water on top of the feed so it is soaking in their actual feed tub rather than in the smaller feed-mixing-bucket. This is pretty easy and prevents the mess you mentioned.
Iām not feeding alfalfa pellets, but my TC senior and TC lite is usually sufficiently mushy by the time I finish dumping everyoneās feed (6 horses) and bring them in - as long as I use hot water.
We wet the food down with hot water in the winter and they gulp it down, with the flax. If I donāt, it gets wasted. When itās gone try Kentucky Equine Researchās EO-3. I was surprised theyād eat it but all 8 eat it without problem.
Yep, I tried those and my mare loved them. I just wish they were not so hard and so big
I eventually stopped feeding flax because I really needed to cut back on the calories wherever I could for my well insulated herd. Havenāt really noticed a difference in hair, coat or hooves since theyāve been off the flax. But I also havenāt seen much change in weight.
If you have an actual āfeed dealerā near you who sells whole grains in addition to pre bagged( name brand) feeds they should be able to order it for you. Mine keeps a bag for me on hand. I am the only one they order it for.
I had read (and been told) that if you feed flax whole, it mostly passes through the digestive system undigested. I was able to buy whole flax from my local feed store but switched to ground after being told whole wasnāt very beneficial. I did not do any research to confirm this.
