Anyone tried these new feeds? Considering moving my program to the ration balancer and performance. They are in Essential K and Senior Sport now.
Did you check your local prices? They can be quite a lot more than the regular formulas.
I’ve talked with a handful of people now who have switched. Some are doing better, and the entire reason they changed was needing to remove soy without having to formulate an entire diet themselves. So it stands to reason they’d see benefits.
Then there are some others who haven’t seen any changes, so the price difference isn’t worth it.
As with all feeds, it’s “try and see”
The balancer is really nice on paper in that they removed soy, and kept the protein level at the same 28% as the regular balancer. But that’s also why it costs appreciably more - pea and whey protein aren’t cheap,
Check the NSC differences. I’m pretty sure the pea protein made the NSCs go up, I just don’t remember by how much.
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Thanks JB. Yes it is quite a bit more expensive. I am going to try it for a couple of horses currently having some slight issues on the Senior Sport and/or EK. Balancer +Alf pellets if needed might simplify the diet enough to help, I hope. I do think it is too expensive to use on the horses doing just fine on EK (the vast majority). I guess we will see!
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I feed the exact same as you do. Ess K and Senior Sport. I checked local prices for the wholesome blends versions of these feeds and they are OUTRAGEOUS. I decided not to fix something that isn’t broken. If what you’re feeding is working, don’t mess with it. 
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Thank God no! $33.50 for the Balancer.
I pay $26 for EK and $21.50 for Senior Sport, to compare. I bulk purchase and am close to a mill.
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Because Tribute is only milled in a single plant in Ohio, shipping starts adding up the farther out you are. I see a lot more price differences in their feeds than any other bigger brand name because of that. Tribute does have a wider distribution than a lot of other “regional” companies, like Poulin, but they don’t have the distribution or milling network that Triple Crown or Purina do.
I’m going to try it with my pony probably end of Feb/March. I like the lack of soy and with his metabolic issues it won’t hurt anything, might help stable his levels. He eats 3/4 lb ration balancer a day so isn’t going to grossly affect my pocket book. It was priced at 31.$$ something last time i was at the feed store.
NSC is 15% for the Essentials. His current Legends ration balancer is 14%, so not a drastic difference for us. He won’t eat the TC ration balancer and semi eats Enrich. So fingers crossed he eats the new one.
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Yes I’m sure it is because I am in SoCal. LOL! I haven’t found a RB under $40.
I have had some of mine on the wholesome ration balancer since I first saw it at my feed store, maybe in September or October? I ended up switching back to Essential K. 2 of my mares got a little hot on it and I’m not sure why…could just be a coincidence with cold weather coming too. I was using it to see if the lack of soy would decrease some of their itchiness but I noticed no difference. I will say that a few bags did have rather large clumps of the binding agent in them that I had to throw away. Kind of annoying when paying a lot! Back to the regular Essential K for me-the old adage holds true once again…if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
I thought I would update this thread now that I’ve had this feed a week or so. It looks nice, horses eat it well, and seem to be tolerating it. I actually ended up talking to Tribute, and they were very helpful. I am now feeding most of my horses Essential K plus, as needed, alfalfa pellets. Two are on the Wholesome Balancer (one with alf pellets). I am very slowly transitioning a third, the one with the long term diarrhea issues, but she isn’t getting enough yet to know. It hasn’t upset her system, at least.
I am pleased but going to keep most of the barn on the EK (alf as needed) I think. My main goal was transitioning off the Senior Sport, which the alf pellets have done.
Thanks for your thoughts and if you have any additional comments, I welcome them!
@fordtraktor (or anyone), any updates on these feeds? I recently switched my TB to TC Balancer Gold from the regular Balancer. He is much less touch-sensitive without soy but it’s also hard to disguise his supplements (I usually mix them into a little TC Senior). I’m looking for something soy-free, tasty, and preferably a little sticky that I can feed at a low rate to make meds and supps more palatable. He doesn’t like anything soaked. I know this stuff is expensive but I wouldn’t be feeding a ton of it.
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I feed my thoroughbred the wholesome blends senior. I’ve fed the performance, but he seems to do better on the senior. He’s very reactive to soy (he acts like he’s colicking after he eats feed with soy), but doesn’t like pelleted feeds so this one works for him. Only one of the feed stores carry it and I pay about $32-33/bag, but it’s cheaper than buying from chewy.
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@Libby2563 I am giving my stall rest horse a little bit of the senior for his meds. He is also still on a small amount of TC balancer gold for nutrition in his regular meals. Normally, he’d get enough food that I could just add some beet pulp for anything that needed to stick, like ground up methocarbamol. But with his diet rations, he is not interested in beet pulp at the moment.
I don’t have a local Tribute seller, so I order from Chewy at an amazingly high price. Since he doesn’t get much at all, I’m ok with it. But this is literally the only feed that I can soak that he LOVES and doesn’t get gummy. Soaking also increases the volume so he thinks he’s getting a real meal too. It is not sticky on its own (without a little water) though, rather dry for a senior feed.
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Thank you, I thought that might be the case from the pictures. Hmm.
I tried it briefly but didn’t find it made any difference for my horses so switched back to Essential K and eventually Kalm Ultra for the harder keepers.
It definitely isn’t sticky at all. It was perfectly fine and my horses ate it well, but the price differential wasn’t worth it for me. If you need soy free it is worth a try.
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Do you have access to Haystack Special Blend pellets? Although they are not sticky, they soak very fast (or you could feed them dry) and horses love the taste. A couple horses at my barn get it as a carrier for their meds/supplements and they lick their bowls clean
So I fed the wholesome blends since they came out, until October of last year. Frankly, it’s not nearly as good as what I thought. I switched to Buckeye Safe n Easy and Grow n Win and my horse has never looked this good. The vet even commented on it this spring when he came out for shots.
Just to echo your concerns, I had a helluva time disguising supplements with any of the WB line. At the time, I had 1 picky eater, but they both didn’t usually finish or would walk away if their supplements balled up. I ended up having to use a lot of stockman’s molasses to get them to eat it. I gave up on the feed line. It’s a nice thought, and it will work for a small class of horses, but it didn’t work for mine.
if you’re looking for soy free ration balancers (which is sounds like you need), Triple Crown Balancer Gold is a GREAT option. Low feeding rate, soy, molasses, and whole grain free. If you feed a mature horse/senior feed or really anything other than a ration balancer, and you don’t feed the recommended weight, which is usually 4-6lbs daily, then they are not getting the vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, etc that they need, nor are they getting the guaranteed analysis on the bag.
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Welll, they ARE getting the GA on the bag 
The GA is the GA - 14% protein is 14% protein whether you feed 1lb or 10lb.
What they aren’t getting if you under-feed is the total amount (which the GA tells you how to calculate) which is formulated based on NRC requirements for the horse in question, and an average forage analysis the company and feed is targeting
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That’s not really how GA’s work, especially for vitamins, minerals or other added benefits like probiotics, and you cannot account for NSC accurately. Pretty much anything that has a specific measurement on the GA instead of a percentage, won’t be correct unless you’re feeding the specific amount they call for.
The average horse in light work needs about 1.5lbs of protein per day. If you feed 1lb of the 14% protein feed, they’re only getting .14lb, which even when combined with grass hay fed at the 2-3% feeding rate that is the necessary minimum, is still pretty far under the requirement.
We need to stop looking at the percentages like a whole value. Percentages don’t really compare to weight values when assessing a horse’s diet.
