Thinking about switching one of our older guys from the regular Triple Crown Senior to the Senior Gold for the additional calories. Has anyone else made the switch and seen any differences between the two feeds? Is your horse doing well on the Gold or did you go back to the regular Senior? Any other experiences?
I switched my old TB from the regular to the Gold! I love it. He’s been in it for several months if not longer now and I’ve been able to reduce his ration significantly and he’s gained weight. I did some number crunching on it; it’s way higher in calories and lower in starch than the regular. Win Win! Plus it has the “same” gastric buffering as Outlast!
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Love Sr Gold! Really didn’t change anybody’s rations (amounts) too much when we switched from Sr to Sr Gold, but I feel so good about the nutrient profile of the Gold for my older metabolic trio, and even for everyone else I just love the lower nsc. BONUS: It doesn’t chunk up into a brick, even in winter – just scoops right up. No having to break up giant bricks of feed! Love Triple Crown, love Sr Gold.
We switched as soon as Gold was introduced, and have no plans to go back. All the horses eat it enthusiastically.
I switched mine to Gold about two months ago, they were both just a little thinner than I like them to be. My feed store sells it for 50 cents more a bag than the regular Triple Crown, so it was kind of a no brainer!
So far, I have been able to discontinue the Ultimate Finish fat supplement they were on and I suspect when the grass comes in, I’ll be able to reduce their rations. They’re looking a little chubby now 
So far, I’m very happy I made the switch.
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I love Senior Gold. I really liked TC Senior as well but feel that the Gold gives even better results.
Sigh, I guess I’m the outlier. I just finished switching over and my TB won’t finish his grain. He doesn’t like anything powdery and the Sr Gold is drier and more crumbly/less sticky than the regular Sr, so I guess that’s why he doesn’t like it? He’s leaving about 1/4 of each 3-lb meal, which is a lot of waste. Of course I had the feed store order several bags for me and no other customers use it so I think I will be stuck with it for a little while and may have to add molasses or something to get through it.
I also tried it once before for a different horse, who ate it but didn’t do any better on it than regular Sr, so I switched back because it was more convenient to not have to special order it.
Not the outlier - I’ve been trying to switch my 32yo over to the Gold for the calorie boost. Best I’ve been able to do is a 50/50 mix in each 5lb meal. So, it’s better than nothing. But yes, more oil (which he’s already not a fan of) and less molasses, does make a drier and less sweet-smelling feed. But I know of lots of horses eating 3-5lb meals who just gobble it up.
Glad it’s not just me! Added molasses to his dinner and still ended up with a large amount of apparently inedible crumbles…which he isn’t motivated enough to pick through to eat all of his rice bran or pelleted supps either, grrrrrrrr. One of my other horses hovered the remnants up like his life depended on it but unfortunately he’s not the hard keeper.
OH yeah, if I put this in front of the 2 easy keepers, it would be gone before I could blink!
I switched my super-senior hard keeper from TC Senior to the Gold and loved what it did for her. However, she never really warmed up to it and then one day she put her hoof down and said “no more.” So I’m back to the regular TCS. She’s dropped weight as doesn’t love to eat a ton of breakfast and I can’t really increase her volume in her dinner and night check grain too much more.
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I love the Gold. My gelding has been on it for over a year now and looks fantastic on 3.5 lbs/daily (any more and he gets too fat!). I recently bought some half-off bags of the original senior. Not only did he not eat it as readily as the Gold, he lost weight and topline - Even when fed 5 lbs. I switched him back to the Gold and his weight has picked back up!
Just a heads up, that’s below the recommended feeding rate (unless your gelding is under 500-600 lbs) so you may want to double-check that he’s getting all of the nutrition (as opposed to just calories) that he needs. The TC Senior Gold website says: “If feeding less than 6 lb. per day (per 1,000 lb. of body weight) in combination with hay, supplement with 1 lb. per day of Triple Crown Balancer or Triple Crown Balancer Gold in order to meet recommended levels of vitamins, minerals and digestive support.”
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I should have stated that he also gets a vitamin/mineral supplement :). He gets the TCS for calories more than anything. Thanks!
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Sorry to “lecture” you then! 
I do the same thing with TCS and 30% in the summer when my TB doesn’t need a full serving of Sr.
Of course 2 days after I canceled my next order of Sr Gold at the feed store, my horse started finishing his meals. Can’t win!
No need to be sorry, everything you said is true and helpful for others!
I know all about picky eaters! It’s a daily battle for sure!
So I just bought a bag and was going to try to put my guy on it. Is it me or does it have kind of an odd smell to it? My guy is pretty picky, he gave it a couple of sniffs and kinda went “meh”
It does smell “stale”, especially compared to TC Sr regular. I can agree with “odd” smell. It doesn’t seem to go well for pickier eaters. I did get my old guy to eat a 50/50 mix (2.5lb each) for a while, but he’s over that too, so I’m just using up the last of the bag in 1lb increments added to 4lb of the regular, and he’s ok with that.
I will still always advocate for it, it’s a really nice product, and a lot of horses DO love it.
I made up a spray bottle with Equisweet peppermint flavour and water and sprayed the top of the feed (lol it’s there anything I won’t do for my old man? 
) and I think he found that acceptable. Hopefully it continues to work.
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Thanks to everyone for sharing your experience. Sounds like the Gold might be worth a try but I should be prepared for a picky eater!
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It smells cocoa-ish to me.
Our princess diva old lady likes it. I finally found a store that will special order it and she liked it so we switched from Ultium to this. I do add some peppermint extract sometimes to make sure she keeps liking it. 
