We had an IR/Cushings/toothless 30-something gelding, this is how we handled it: plain beet pulp, soaked, drained, soaked and drained again. Added (in this case) 1 lb orchard pellets, 1 lb alfalfa pellets, his vitamin supp, a phosphorus supp (because BP is all calcium) and whatever else he needed. He got this twice a day. He was also on Prascend.
I don’t know what your horses weigh or caloric needs might be so I won’t advise on how much to feed, but you might try plain (no molasses added) beet pulp that is soaked, drained, soaked and drained again. We just used a giant spaghetti colander.
My horses are doing very well on the Standlee brand Alfalfa pellets.
My current toothless wonder is happily eating soaked Triple Crown Timothy Balance cubes. He was eating alfalfa cubes before and doing okay, but he eats these even better.
Everything I’ve read and heard about horses on the metabolic spectrum says that Alfalfa is the best hay option for them- higher protein, but lower NSC. Timothy, I am given to understand, holds high sugars in the heads- so, no go. Orchard grass can be iffy. I do know that opinions vary :winkgrin:, however, my crew seems to bear all of this out.
Overall, for the price, Dumors alfalfa hay cubes and pellets are a great buy. I do love me some Standlee compressed alfalfa bales, however. Pricey, but gorgeous.
I’m in TX and can find Top of the Rockies alfalfa cubes easily, Manzanola Feed out of Colorado produces them. I’ve been very happy with them. The company states the alfalfa is from non-GMO seed stock. They scoop easily, soak easily and are not as hard as other cubes I have tried. There is no binding ingredient which is great! I have tried Standlee but was not thrilled with them as they did not soak very well and had binder. Ontario Dehy and Triple Crown cubes were great quality and texture (soft) but hard to find consistently here. Other brands I tried had binders and did not do well soaking. When I lived out west, Mountain Sunrise was my favorite brand. They were out of Utah.
I had an old pony on Triple Crown Safe Starch forage until he started picking through it and only eating the softer parts. I switched him to Standlee orchard or timothy pellets, soaked along with some beet pulp, and he thrived on that until he died of other causes at 34.
I have also bought a few bags of Standlee alfalfa pellets over the years, and have been happy with it, especially compared to another brand that I once tried that seemed a much lesser quality (sorry, can’t remember what it was).
I’ve been feeding Standlee Alfalfa cubes (and beet pulp shreds FWIW) as there is very limited access to these types of products in my current location - no very few if any other options that I can consistently get access to. However, the quality hasn’t been bad. Everything soaks fine and we haven’t had any quality issues thus far.
I use the Forage Global Essentials mini cubes since they alfalfa (or T&A) cubes w/add’l vitamins/minerals to make them a complete ration (and Ca:Ph balanced).
If I had a horse getting “normal” rations I don’t know that would bother, but I’m dealing with an easy keeper retiree + an easy keeper in a hard work, so between both of them getting so little calories in grain (ration balancer), a lot of grass hay and not any real pasture right now (unless you define “mud” as pasture… sigh…), I want to make sure everything is balanced and they are about the same price as standlee and both are at TSC. Plus "mini"makes then a bit easier to break down by soaking or easier to chew without soaking.
Also, way back when fed alfalfa pellets, as the earlier poster said, seminole pellets were way better than any other.
(ETA - sorry, not really relevant to the updated inquiry that revived this old post)
I have used this product on my easy keeper fatty. CHopped hay NO MOLASSES. https://lucernefarms.com/hi-fiber-gold/ I also use Seminole’s T/A cubes which I soak in water for about 10 minutes.
