I’m trying my IR/PPID horse on beet pulp, alfalfa pellets, VB Pro and all the very nice grass hay (appropriate for IR horse) he will eat. I just finally got him to eat Unbeetable Blend. His top line looks great but his ribs aren’t covered. I’m wondering if I need to go back to a RB, and if so, which one…
how long has he been on the current diet, and by “very nice grass hay” do you mean it’s tested? What’s the protein level and how many pounds does he eat?
How much beep and alf pellets?
Is the UnBeetable replacing the separate beep and alf? If so, pound for pound?
Ribs is a calorie issue. If his topline looks good then he’s got good nutrition
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Does RB stand for Ration Balancer? Those are typically low calorie carriers for vitamins and minerals. Adding that back in wouldn’t help with weight gain.
If she replaces the VB Pro with a ration balancer, that will up calories and protein. Rubs are 1 to 2 pounds per day for an as average size horse.
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Hi @JB, thanks for your response. He is now cheerfully eating 2 pounds of alfalfa pellets with 1 pound of beet pulp. I think he will be happy to eat more.
I gave up completely on the idea he will ever eat VB Pro in anything, so I’m wondering if he’s now willing to eat more since he’s no longer suspicious. He also recently decided Unbeetable is delicious after all.
His hay is tested…it’s 3rd cutting orchard grass-9% NSC, 17 % protein. We spray and fertilize our fields.
I’d syringe the VB Pro down his throat for a few days, then try a bit in his alfalfa/beet pulp mix, he’d eat some and then quit for several days. Clearly I’m the slow learner here.
. I’ll just live w the syringe- he doesn’t mind, the new gadget works well, and I’m able to get him to eat more this way. If you have suggestions as to what I should do differently, I’d be appreciative.
To those whose horses didn’t like Unbeetable, mine didn’t either. Now he thinks it’s delicious….
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While I really like VB, I have not been able to get my horse to agree with me. But there are other VMS out there that she will eat. IIWY, I’d be looking for one you can just add to your carrier.
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I feed a forage only diet with vitamins to two of my horses, and what I might call a “high” forage diet to the rest (including boarders). The two who eat forage only (with vitamins and supplements) are easier keepers, middle-aged, and good eaters. The others are a variety of either aged, harder keepers naturally (one I’m still trying to puzzle out what his damage is) or difficult eaters.
Forage only (with vitamins) isn’t magical. It’s great for some conditions like PSSM and some metabolic things and not useful at all for others. It’s kind of a pain, because to carry vitamins and supplements usually I’m soaking feeds (which I have the luxury of doing because I own the barn).
It’s just another way, among all the myriad of ways, to keep horses.
I haven’t tried Unbeetable yet, but I’m not seeing the advantages over shreds.
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Just curious, but which vit/mineral sups does your horse find more agreeable than the Vermont Blend? It does seem a little tough to convince some to eat it!
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@Pico_Banana, would you share which one yours will eat? I feel like I’ve tried them all and went w VB because it was the smallest amount.
Of course!
I currently feed her Omneity premix, which I did introduce gradually, but she also approves of CA Trace Plus in pellet form (she would not eat the CTP in the granules) and Amino Trace in pellet form. Pellets seem to be more palatable to her in general.
I’ve also played around with different carriers. I like to use SpeediBeet as a carrier because it’s super easy and fluffs up a ton, but maresy prefers soaked alfalfa pellets.
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My older mare liked Horsetech’s High Point Grass pellets. She’d eat them out of my hand.
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They gave my mare diarrhea. 
Which is a bummer because in general I really like HorseTech products.
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Can I ask what the advantage of feeding beet pulp is?
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I feed it (in small quantities) for a couple reasons. It’s a great source of fiber and is considered prebiotic and helps promote a healthy microbial population in the hindgut. The shreds also absorb water really well so I like that it gets a little extra water in too. My Guy seems to prefer the texture of the soaked shred to soaking hay pellets, or even cubes sometimes.
Fed in larger amounts, it can also help harder keeper types due to its digestible energy content as well.
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My dude has turned into a chunk on this stuff. When I pulled his blanket off after the arctic blast we had come through (and now it’s 70, of course), I was like whoa! Porky much? I thought he was getting tired of it, but I was wrong. He eats it all, then tries to get the remnants of maresy’s, then comes back and licks and actually gnaws the bottom of his pan like he’s starving. His physique says otherwise.
As for forage-based, the only time my gelding ever looked thin (ribs showing and backbone visible) was when a well-meaning but uneducated BO tried to “fatten him up” by switching him from a ration balancer to a high NSC feed that was loaded with oats. She was shoveling this stuff to him, not giving him enough hay, and wondering why he was continuing to lose weight AND starting to act like a nut.
I’ve just now gotten him fully recovered from that. I got the feed situation straightened out once I figured out the issue, but the damage was done. I finally got the gastric ulcers addressed last year and lo and behold, my laid-back easy-keeper has returned.
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What Fjord said plus in small amounts it is a lot of bulk with not a lot of DE, which is really nice when you have a mixed herd of hard and easy keepers and the easy keepers get a little envious of the hard keepers and how long it takes them to finish their meals.
Or maybe I’m just the sucker that can’t look past their longing faces as their slower eating larger mealed brethren are finishing breakfast.
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Yes, this too!! I feed two cups with each of his meals, a little over an half pound, and it doesn’t look like much dry but fluffs up to a lot more than you’d expect.
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The chunky monkey. I think this is the best he’s ever looked in the winter in his life. I don’t know that the Forage Only is really the reason, but it sure isn’t hurting anything and I swear he’s plumped up even more since I started feeding it. Everything else is the same.
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He looks great! Just wanted to say I’m jealous of your dry lot - everything here is currently under water or boot sucking mud 🫣.
The Unbeetable so far has been a good swap for the hay stretcher we were using before. I like the nutrient profile and the quick soak, to the point that I often over water and completely un-pellet the pellets 
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