I’m sure this is in here somewhere already, but I am moving my 5 year old OTTB to a new farm where boarders supply their own hay and grain. I have always been at boarding barns that require you fee what they fed. How do you decide what company/store to buy your feed?
You look at what he is fed now. do you like his weight and his energy level? Then continue the same.
Then you look at the nutrition and calories in his feed. You decide if he is getting all the nutrients he needs and then how to fill in the gaps. I recommend Julie Getty’s Feed Your Horse Like a Horse for a basic overview.
The diet should be founded on hay, with ration balancer or grain or bagged feed as needed for nutrients and extra calories. Get the best hay you can find. Pound for pound, hay is much cheaper than bagged feeds, unless there is a big hay shortage year.
OTTB tend to have faster metabolisms and sometimes pickier appetites that some horses, so feed as much hay as the horse will eat. If his weight is good on hay, you only need a rational balancer. If he can’t eat enough hay to keep his weight good, you might need to feed significant quantities of a bagged feed.
Feed store is irrelevant, go for convenience and any price difference.
For brand, first find what brands are available in your area. Then look at the different kinds of feed each brand offers. Usually they will have feed for mares, for foals, for seniors, for performance horses, etc. By that point, you will probably only have a handful of local options that meet your requirements. Then you can compare/contrast the nutrition, calories and sugars in the feed.
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My decision process involved feed quality and what my horses need as far as what brand and product. Customer service and availability were extremely important for me as far as who to buy feed from.
That being said, I drive 65 miles each way to buy Triple Crown from one of the best dealers in the state. They always hold feed for me to make sure it is in stock when I get there (I call 10-14 days ahead of when I am going to pick up). They are always helpful, polite and considerate- from the person answering the phone to the person loading my truck. Plus, the feed is always well within date code and the bags are in good shape. Even though I don’t buy a lot of feed and pick up 4-5 times per year, they greet me by my first name every time I walk in the door, and treat me like I just bought a tractor trailer of feed!
There is a Triple Crown dealer much, much closer to my home, and I bought feed from them twice. Both times they did not have the number of bags I asked for, even though I had called in advance and was told they would. Both times I had moldy bags of feed when I got opened them, with outdated date codes. When I called them, they did take the feed back, and gave me every excuse in the world why the feed was bad, taking no responsibility themselves. I worked in the feed industry for 15 years, so I know what is a valid reason and what is not.
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Customer service and availability are big for me, too. I am currently feeding Seminole feeds instead of Triple Crown for these very reasons. The Seminole dealer has great service and I can count on them to have what I need when I need it. I also buy my hay from them, so they can deliver feed at the same time. Also, they get feed shipments weekly, so my feed bags are usually dated within a week to 10 days of manufacture.
This feed dealer has called to check on me when something like a storm is forecast, so that I can prepare with ample feed and hay. They hold back hay for me, because one of my horses has chewing difficulty and needs fine hay. They clearly value me as a customer and go the extra mile to provide great service. The competing feed store in town (Triple Crown dealer) has much more of a “take it or leave it” attitude.
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If you choose good quality hay and feed, you should not have to also feed a bunch of supplements to meet his nutritional needs.
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AMEN.
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Start by looking at what brands the stores around you carry. Don’t assume that what the old barn was feeding is the appropriate feed for your horse. It can seem overwhelming to figure out what to do, but it’s usually because you’re starting from the wrong end of things. Start with the horse.
What is your horse currently eating? What specific product, and how many pounds? If you don’t know, that’s Step 1 - find out.
Step 2 is evaluate his condition. Is he too thin or too fat? Does he have any chronic skin, coat, or feet problems? If his weight is perfect, his coat is shiny, he’s got great feet, AND the amount of feed is at least the minimally recommended amount for his weight, then most likely I wouldn’t change a thing. The exception would be if his current feed is a very high sugar feed. While it may not be presenting issues now, it likely will down the road.
Thanks for the input! I know what he needs to eat in terms of nutrition, but many companies have feeds that are similar. I’ll call and talk to the local feed stores and see who seems helpful. Out of date/moldy/improperly stored/ inconsistent from bag to bag are my min concerns.
Well as you evaluate also email the locally available feed companies and ask for both ingredients and guaranteed nutrition.
Some feeds are fixed ingredients and fixed nutrition.
Some feeds are fixed nutrition but variable ingredients. They go with what is cheapest or most available to get the nutrition.
So the ingredients might say oats and/or barley and/or wheat and/or corn. Might say alfalfa and/or soy and/or wheat middlings etc.
This would mean the feed could vary substantially from batch to batch.
None of this is on the bag. Indeed at our feed stores you don’t even see the bag until you pay and drive around back to load it in your truck.
You need to go to websites and if the info isbt there, email company.
Myself I prefer the idea of fixed ingredients.
Use FeedXL. Was INVALUABLE when I was in this situation. https://feedxl.com/tools-for-precision-nutrition/
I’d kept horses for decades without being in charge of diet, so it was daunting. With FeedXL you can play around with numbers and also input pricing to make sure you’re covering your nutritional bases without paying too much.
For example - I was buying the premixed Smartpak stuff, but FeedXL showed me I really only needed to buy a mega bag of each isolated mineral/etc. It was better for my horse (they were getting the perfect levels of each nutrient) and it was much easier on the wallet.
I got my hay tested bc that was the only way to know it’s actual nutritional content, my home state of NC’s extension will do it for $10! https://harnett.ces.ncsu.edu/hay-eva…n-and-testing/
Edited to add - utilize the nutritionists for each brand, but don’t feel bad doing your own research. The Nutrena feed that my rep recommended for my body scale 2 rehab horse ended up being off the charts on some things that were negatively affecting her comeback. Once I started balancing things on FeedXL, her demeanor changed and I could tell I was on the right track.
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Keep in mind that rarely does anyone at any feed store know the first thing about feeding any animal. They know what sells best, they know what they use and like (if bought from there), but that’s not helpful. Being helpful isn’t the same as being knowledgeable.
Often you have to go by word of mouth to determine which stores keep feed in a good rotation so that mold/out of date isn’t an issue. If a store doesn’t care that they’re doing that, they don’t care to tell you the truth
If you truly do know what he needs in terms of nutrition - not just “he’s a performance horse therefore needs a performance feed” (which isn’t automatically the case) - then I truly mean no offense, but you wouldn’t be here asking this question 
Not all “maintenance” feeds are created equal. Some are sky-high in sugar, for example.
Pretty much everyone has the GA online now. Many also have ingredients, many don’t, so for those that don’t, that can be a struggle to find out, as even some companies claim “proprietary” information as to why they can’t (won’t) give that out :rolleyes:
Some feeds are fixed ingredients and fixed nutrition.
Some feeds are fixed nutrition but variable ingredients. They go with what is cheapest or most available to get the nutrition.
So the ingredients might say oats and/or barley and/or wheat and/or corn. Might say alfalfa and/or soy and/or wheat middlings etc.
This would mean the feed could vary substantially from batch to batch.
None of this is on the bag.
Bags are required to have the ingredient list somewhere, whether it’s printed on the bag, or printed on a tag sewn to the bag.
FeedXL can be a great place if you at least have the list of choices narrowed down. But without a forage analysis, it’s all a guess. The perfect feed with a generic hay analysis may not at all be perfect with the actual hay fed. If you need something generic, I would at least contact your County Extension Agency for an idea of an average analysis for X type of hay in your specific area. What is typical of the Western part of NC is not at all typical of the Eastern part, for example, so a generic “Southeast Region” doesn’t cut it.
The statement above is NOT true. There are plenty of feed stores out there with owners and employees who are more than knowledgeable. I know some with degrees in Animal Science. Don’t make assumptions.
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I didn’t say never. It is the rare person I run across who has gotten any reasonably educated information from a “feed store”. I am sure in some areas, and maybe some chains, it is much more common to get real information.
I would love to know where all these plenty of stores are so I can direct people in those areas to go talk to them. Truly - people need to know.
I would also love to know the extent of their knowledge. Animal Science is a hugely broad degree and doesn’t doesn’t mean they didn’t specialized in horses, much less equine nutrition.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I hate it when people ignorantly make blanket statements based on their own teeny tiny little corner of experience. My feed store has an equine specialist who will come out and test hay and make recommendations based on the results. I should look up her credentials, I can’t remember off the top of my head, but she does have an equine nutrition related degree - it’s probably Animal Science. Many of the other employees own a variety of animals - pigs, chickens, cows, etc and they are a wealth of helpful information when I encounter an issue. Such as - put bluing on the bald, raw head of my little hen who was getting hen-pecked by the flock.
And to dismiss the education of someone with an Animal Science degree is pretty ignorant too. As if self educating online is superior. :no:
Why not check out VA Tech’s Animal Science program before acting like people with an Animal Science degree cannot be knowledgeable about horses? What the heck makes one think that the are so superior to everyone and knows more than someone with a formal education? Because there is no major in equine nutrition?
https://www.apsc.vt.edu/students/und…Academics.html
So because a degree is in Animal Science means they can’t possibly know anything about equine nutrition? They can’t do a research paper on equine nutrition? They didn’t take Bio, Chem, Microbio, Biochem, Molecular Bio, Cell Physiology, none of those courses would give a person a strong base for pursuing knowledge about equine nutrition?
I just find it ironic that someone with no credentials is so quick to condemn and dismiss the credentials of everyone else.
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:lol: :lol: And I didn’t make a blanket statement. Rare doesn’t mean “absolutely nobody”
My feed store has an equine specialist who will come out and test hay and make recommendations based on the results.
And that is awesome. I do not think you are in the majority at all.
And to dismiss the education of someone with an Animal Science degree is pretty ignorant too. As if self educating online is superior. :no:
Clearly you need to actually read what I wrote, again, as I did not at all dismiss the degree, it’s just what you wanted to hear me say. I pointed out that AS is a very broad degree and doesn’t mean they specialized in horses
Why not check out VA Tech’s Animal Science program before acting like people with an Animal Science degree cannot be knowledgeable about horses? What the heck makes one think that the are so superior to everyone and knows more than someone with a formal education? Because there is no major in equine nutrition?
https://www.apsc.vt.edu/students/und…Academics.html
Note that not once did I say they could not be knowledgeable about horses because of an AS degree. But you just proved my point. Per your link, an AS degree might be tailored to the Production-Business option. How does that give them good working knowledge of equine nutrition?
Or maybe the did choose the Science option to get into nutrition, but chose to specialize in Companion/Lab Animals, or Poultry. How does that give them good working knowledge of equine nutrition?
And if you actually look at your link, you’d see that you can get the Science option (which focuses on nutrition) and a specialization in horses, so yes, you actually can “major” in equine nutrition. But that’s one of many potential options with an AS degree.
Clearly, you can’t comprehend my posts, as not once did I dismiss credentials. Should someone with an MD after his name be perfectly capable of discussing an Auto-Immune Protocol diet with you? Why isn’t it enough that he took all the same basic Bio, Chem, Microbio, Biochem, Molecular Bio, and Cell Physiology courses in school? I mean, why not ask a surgeon how to safely get on a true Keto diet to help with your epilepsy?
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I would ask any MD before I would ask an anonymous internet poster. One thing about a formal education is that you understand that you don’t know everything, and you are able to direct inquiries to those who can truly help with a problem. The online anonymous internet posters who are “self-educated” can go down the road of misinformation although they have good intentions. Which is why there are children dying of measles. Some parents thought they were educating themselves and did not realize their sources were suspect and had no credentials. The ability to string words together that sound good, logical and helpful is called salesmanship, not knowledge.
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And you throw out plenty of nutritional advice here. What is your degree in? Attended a special nutrition school? Been trained by a feed company? Have a Masters? What makes you an expert, especially one in a position to criticize businesses of which you have no direct knowledge? Certified member of ARPAS?
Feed store owners and employees don’t just sell horse feed. It is part of their business but certainly not all of it. An Animal Science degree covers more than one base.
Sometimes the greatest ability in selling feed, and many other situations in life, is being able to say “I don’t know, but I know where I can find out”, and doing so. I know PhDs in Equine Nutrition who do this.
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Our local co op mill has equine nutrionists with degrees on contract and will run hay tests and discuss them with you. They offer good advice on which feed brands that they manufacture would be complementary. But that is really different from asking the workers behind the counter how to balance your horse’s diet.
I also think that if you were in real farming country or rangeland, the nutrionists and feed stores would tend heavily towards cattle expertise.
And that does not 100% translate to horse nutrition. So I could imagine a rural feed store with good advice on cattle. But not so good on horses.
Honestly it never occurred to me to ask the folks behind the feed store counters for advice. I don’t think that’s where people with degrees in animal science end up, at least not in the suburbs/exurbs.
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Again, more wrong assumptions. I covered a sales territory for one of the top ten animal nutrition companies in the world that was basically the entire northeast US from the Mid-Atlantic region to the Canadian border. I called on over 150 feeds stores in that region. One co-op I worked with had six salespeople out on the road. Everyone had a degree in Animal Science, and were well versed in equine nutrition. They had to be after the dairy industry was driven out by development in that state. Horses were at least holding steady while dairy/ beef numbers declined.
Many stores do offer equine specialists, who actually go out and make calls. Most people who work with either beef or dairy want no part in working with horses, as ruminant nutrition is much different than equine and they see horses as hay burners and horse owners as a PIA.
Animal Science does not just encompass the study of one species. It can cover more than one species as electives are part of the degree program. Most feed companies strive to hire Animal Science grads, although it is usually not a requirement. Believe it or not, most of these people are there to do a job and they want to do it well.
And I am still waiting to hear all of JB’s credentials. I have asked this question before and it has never been answered.
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