Triple Crown Senior vs. Senior Gold

[Amy3996]

@HoovesLikeFlapjacks

Wait a second, we are all talking about Purina Ultium Gastric Care right? Because I see both Competition and Gastric Care and based on the names, I wouldn’t wanna be feeding my 17y/o OTTB in light work ‘competition’ feed. If we are all talking about the gastric care version, no feed stores within a 50 mi. radius from me carry that either. #$%%&*$&!!!

Don’t get too wrapped up in the branding. Calling something a “Senior” feed or a “Competition” feed is more for marketing than anything else. If it fits the horse’s needs from a caloric/nutritional standpoint, I wouldn’t write it off just based on the name.

I tried my OTTB on TC Senior/SG as a 5yo because it was the lowest NSC/highest calorie option available to me, not because he fit the arbitrary age category for a “senior” feed. He turned his nose up at it so we tried Ultium Competition. He’s getting 6lbs a day right now in light/moderate work (4x a week at most). That’s putting weight on him nicely coming out of winter.

[HoovesLikeFlapjacks]

Here is the comparison between the two according to MadBarn but the blank spots on the Gastric Care label are probably BS: https://madbarn.com/compare-horse-feeds/?f=71251,401497&a=6,6&u=lb,lb

Good to know. I just got 2 bags of Gastric Care but the ingredients seem similar enough to Gastric Care that I can transition him. Competition seems to have higher calories/fat/fiber and less protein than Gastric Care, which I like. And it’s more readily available in my town, whereas Gastric Care is only at TSC an hour away.

[Amy3996]

I’ve used both the Gastric Care and Competition - I didn’t notice a difference between them in terms of results. N=1 so YMMV, but I wouldn’t worry about chasing down the GC if Competition is readily available to you.

[HoovesLikeFlapjacks]

@JB this is probably a question for you: is there any way to determine iron levels in the Ultium Competition or GC feed? It’s not on the GA, and MadBarn says roughly 520 mg/lb which seems high maybe? I can’t find any iron levels on their website either. Trying to determine my iron/copper/etc. ratios again.

[JB]

You have to call the company and ask, as iron comes from added and intrinsic and since there’s no way to know how much iron is in the ingredients that contain iron (like forages), and no way to know how much Fe they added, there’s no way to calculate.

520mg/lb is 1144mg/kg (ppm) which cannot be right, so I don’t know where they got that from. To compare, TC Senior is 175ppm (mg/kg) which is one of the lower ones. Most that I’ve seen are in the 200-300ppm range. My guess is they must have meant mg/kg, not mg/lb. Even then, I’m not sure it’s really that high. I would call Purina and ask, and if you find something substantially different from 520mg/kg, call MadBarn and tell them. Ask Purina for both UC and UC GC

[JB]

And keep in mind, there is no fe:cu ratio. If you can get in the 10:1 range, that’s fine for the healthy horse. Metabolic horses often benefit from a lower range.

[HoovesLikeFlapjacks]

Still waiting on Purina email. Can’t find anything re: iron levels online or on forums here - just frustration over the lack of bag tags and how no iron info is printed on bags/website etc.

[JB]

it is VERY frustrating how many companies, including bigger/more nationally available name brands, have an abbreviated GA. Yes, they still provide more than what’s required, but some really important things like Fe and Mg are often missing

[HoovesLikeFlapjacks]

Got an answer! “Thanks for choosing Purina. The added iron in Ultium Competition will be 256 ppm and in Ultium Gastric Care 204 ppm.”

[JB]

Sweet! So it seems MadBarn blipped on their conversion, multiplying by 2.2 rather than dividing, to get to mg/lb. The numbers are still a bit off, but well in range of what number they started with, which might have been old info from Purina, or something they got from an actual product analysis.

[HoovesLikeFlapjacks]

Good sleuthing. That puts my Fe:Cu ratio at ~8:1 I think, so getting a copper/zinc supplement isn’t really necessary. I may add it if I find a good price/sale

[JB]

AND, keep in mind not all that Fe is bioavailable, either at all, or not very. Did they happen to say what form of Fe is added? Iron oxide for example is basically unavailable - it’s “rust”.

[HoovesLikeFlapjacks]

I didn’t ask, but I will in the next email.

Edit: actually I have the list of ingredients. Iron oxide is on there.

Ingredients (not from their website): Wheat Middlings, Ground Soybean Hulls, Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal, Cane Molasses, Dried Beet Pulp, Stabilized Rice Bran, Soybean Oil, Vegetable Oil, Ground Oat Hulls, Ground Corn, Dehulled Soybean Meal, Flaxseed, Calcium Carbonate, Lignin Sulfonate, Salt, DL-Methionine, L-Lysine, Citric Acid, Dried Whey Solubles, Choline Chloride, Iron Oxide, Vitamin E Supplement, Propionic Acid (A Preservative), Thiamine Mononitrate, Sorbitan Monostearate, Anise Flavor, Fenugreek Flavor, Calcium Pantothenate, Tocopherols, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, L-Tryptophan, L-Threonine, Calcium Iodate, Magnesium Oxide, Cobalt Carbonate, Ferrous Carbonate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Manganous Oxide, Sodium Selenite.

[HoovesLikeFlapjacks]

More Purina Ultium Competition and Gastric Care nutritional information from Purina Mills email:

Ultium Competition
chlorine 0.53%
sulfur 0.27%
iodine 3.84 ppm
manganese 256 ppm
cobalt 0.70 ppm

Ultium Gastric Care
chlorine 0.53%
sulfur 0.26%
iodine 3.61 ppm
manganese 204 ppm
cobalt 0.56 ppm

[JB]

It’s really unfortunate that we don’t have the tools to break out how much iron is actually available to the horse, and how much isn’t, when doing these analyses.

[Atlas_Shrugged]

I switched to Triple Crown from Purina on my 3 horses of varying ages and weights etc and prefer TC

[HoovesLikeFlapjacks]

I switched to Purina Ultium for the gastric buffering.

I tried to stay on TC Sr Gold (bc of gastric buffering) but (1) it is not available in my area unless I pay $$$ per bag and (2) horse hates it lol

Horse likes Ultium better than gold but about the same as reg triple crown Sr.

[Mardi1]

@Amy3996

I tried my OTTB on TC Senior/SG as a 5yo because it was the lowest NSC/highest calorie option available to me, not because he fit the arbitrary age category for a “senior” feed. He turned his nose up at it so we tried Ultium Competition. He’s getting 6lbs a day right now in light/moderate work (4x a week at most). That’s putting weight on him nicely coming out of winter.

Just curious, when you say your horse is getting 6lbs daily, how are you dividing the feedings ? 2 lbs 3 x a day, 3 lbs 2 x a day, etc. Recommendations always say “small, frequent feedings”, but what amount is consider small ? TIA

[Amy3996]

My guy gets 3lbs AM and PM. Generally 5lbs is the upper safe limit for concentrate (grain) at each feeding. If you have your horses at home and can feed smaller meals more frequently, that’s great too.

[Texarkana]

@Mardi1

Recommendations always say “small, frequent feedings”, but what amount is consider small ? TIA

Generally it’s recommended no more than about 5lbs of concentrates per meal.

But, coming from the world of thoroughbreds and racehorses, there’s some wiggle room on that number for many horses.

They recommend small, frequent feedings so people don’t think they can feed an old horse exclusively on Senior feed their entire allotment in one meal.