@JB The other mill here is HiPro that makes the Step line of feeds. It also has a ration balancer in here but I don’t think it has enough in it.
https://www.trouwnutrition.ca/en-ca/product-lister-step-right/
This is the ration balancer
HiPro themselves have a line of feeds but I don’t see a ration balancer here
My previous farrier tried to get me to cut grain from my hard keeper’s diet “cause the inflammation from the grain was the cause of his hoof lameness”
Humph.
Said horse eats 10+ lbs of triple crown senior, free choice grass and grass hay, and several big flakes of alfalfa hay or perennial peanut hay. And a pound of flax. Currently I estimate his perennial peanut hay consumption at 25 lbs daily.
I guess if I locked the horse in with a round bale of alfalfa hay soaked in oil I might could eliminate grain from his diet. Maybe.
If your horse needs the calories, feed him.
Yes, that’s exactly it. I wouldn’t say he has any acute problems. He’s just thinner than I’d like, and I wanted to be sure I was doing the best thing for him, nutritionally speaking.
IK, R?
Eliminating fortified feeds for a reason - metabolic conditions, obesity, allergies - is a perfectly sensible thing to do. Eliminating them because of vague, trendy, half-digested theories about “inflammation” is just silly.
This is what I’m sort of leaning towards. I’m just not convinced that inflammation is a prominent issue for this horse…not enough that I’d change his diet this dramatically.
@Scribbler Thanks, I did know about but had forgotten the Otter and Hi-Pro feeds. It’s hard to tell much about the Otter Co-op feeds without a more complete GA - they don’t list any trace minerals. The Hi-Pro looks similar to a lot of balancers here.
Sensible you.
There certainly are illnesses where chronic inflammation is a concern, but this very nebulous, completely nonspecific “inflammation” that untrained amateurs claim to see lurking behind every ailment from bucking to brain tumors is essentially hogwash.
Twenty years ago it was hair analysis and Pasture Paradise, nowadays it’s magnesium deficiency and “inflammation.” Live long enough to get old, and you’ll see 'em coming a mile away. 
Is his hay source stable (punny!)- meaning is it worth testing it to see how nutritious it is? If your sourcing for hay is unstable the testing is moot. I agree that changing food for this vague ‘inflammation’ concern is silly.
I’m reminded of a few years ago when someone was fan-girling Elisa Wallace’s fitness and trim physique. They asked for a breakdown of her meal planning and how she eats b/c they wanted to do exactly what she was doing… Elisa was like…well, umm, does cheese wrapped in a tortilla count? 
sadly, that is still very much alive and kicking 
NO . . . 
. . . Really?
Yes exactly.
So this nutritionist thinks you should eliminate the grain in this thinner than ideal horse’s diet?
No wonder you posted! I’d have questioned that too!
Can’t put weight on thin TBS.
I take them off grain, throw them out to eat grass, they have access to round bales of grassy hay. I feed lucerne chaff so they are used to a rich feed for when the grass changes with rain. An extruded ‘pellet’ with barley, no molasses, no corn, no oats and protein for work and boil barley to add to it.
Even the TBS over 20yo
Plus a lick block for vitamins and minerals.
Have they at least stopped installing those ridiculous Pasture Paradise things?
I swear to God, I must have read a hundred threads, back in the day, in which some earnest poster had spent huge amounts of money on this misguided set-up, honestly believing it would make their chubby horsies exercise more, only to find that the horses never actually moved around the track at all(!)
Twelve equally earnest people would then chime in to describe how they chased their own poor beasts around with plastic bags tied to the ends of little sticks. This was supposed to stimulate some very special, wild horse emotional response (uncontrollable amusement, maybe?) that was sadly lacking in captivity, so it was definitely worth all the effort.
Oh, man. Those were good times.
I dunno. I’d like to have one for riding though. Nice fenced in wee bridle path around my wee farm.
Oh, I’d love that too! So civilized. 
But that would involve riding, which the Natural Everything crew I’m thinking of tended to avoid at all costs - I’m not sure why. Maybe they thought it was abusive or unnatural or something.
here in Mb it’s all about “excess iron” - people are putting filters on the hose that fills the water trough
Wow. I’ve never heard that one.
What terrible thing is this “excess iron” supposed to do? Does it, by any chance, cause “inflammation”?
Just so.
I’m now looking forward to the day I meet someone that doesn’t ride bc it isn’t natural but chases their horse with a plastic bag to get them to utilize their Paddock Paradise. I doubt I’ll be civilized lol
No joke!
The fights were wicked back in the day . . . and IRON SHOES . . . !
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