Oddly, a lot of the feeds I came across overseas would be “under fortified” in comparison to most American feeds. I will say I did have to supplement copper and zinc over there for one of my horses.
1 Like
Which feed was that? 250g is not a lot.
It’s by 100kg body weight. So if it says 200g per 100kg of body weight and you have an average 500kg horse, then you’d feed 1000g. Which you probably know.
For one of mine I mostly fed a vit/min and “straights” because I found that the amount of feed got a bit ridiculous and he didn’t need all of that. It was very hard to find a balancer over there. If I did find one, it was generally UK made.
Edit: had to break this into 2 posts because the app was tweaking 
Oops. You are correct that I missed that line. So a 500 kg/1100 lb. horse would get 5 pounds per their feeding directions. Still WELL shy of the amount required to provide any reasonable amount of nutrition (other than calories, of course), which would take almost an entire bag per horse, per day.
In North America, feeding directions have traditionally indicated to owners the amount of feed required to meet a horse’s basic NRC requirements for protein/amino acids, minerals, and vitamins when fed alongside an average quality forage (or alone, in the case of complete feeds). Therefore, the labeling on these European and quasi-European products is misleading to consumers, who believe they can “feed less” of a very expensive product because they are looking at the feeding directions, not the nutrient content.
The availability of these feeds with novel ingredients is helpful to owners of those (extraordinarily) rare animals with genuine sensitivities to more common feed ingredients, I will grant.
4 Likes
Just a FYI - The Nutrena Empower products have been 40lb bags for awhile now.
Example from the Tractor Supply Website
I was also surprised that my Alfalfa Pellets were in a 40lb bag the other day when I stopped to buy them.
And some beet pulp brands (including the vendor my company uses for re-sale products) now come in 30 lb. bags. 
3 Likes
Yes, I know, they’re an exception. My comment was to point out that their cost for 44lb is way higher than the typical cost of US feeds which are almost always 50lb. There are a few extruded feeds that are 40lb, I’m sure there’s another ration balancer that’s < 50lb but it’s not the average by far. Even then, RBs are a higher $/lb, and I while I didn’t look fully, I didn’t see a ration balancer in that Hoveler lineup
many come in 50lb bags, some come in 40lb. Standlee is 40lb. DuMor and AlfaGreen are 50lb, and there are other 50lb as well. I do think 40lb alfalfa is more common than 40lb regular feed
yeahhhh. BUT, that was a TSC requirement rather than the company, who used to make the shreds in 40lb bags when they were the MidWest Agri brand (sp). To be fair, those 40lb bags of shreds were pretty large (but not heavy). The pellets still come in 50lb bags.
2 Likes
And one of those feeds comes in a 33 pound bag. Too rich for my blood!
I regularly pay $40 for a 50lb bag of Tribute to get it to where I am. When I first started buying it, it was close to $60.
Tribute’s weird in its pricing, a lot lower than typical for feeds of the same (alleged) quality, which makes a lot of nutritionists raise their eyebrows as to how they’re making it so cheaply. But then the prices can go up pretty high the farther you are from their plant, since they only have the one and don’t farm out milling
Right, and that’s because it’s a lot of weight to travel. I suspect the prices on this new feed are largely inflated for the “free” shipping.
2 Likes
Chewy does have interesting agreements with companies on how to take care of shipping costs. Several times I’ve seen the cost of a bag jump suddenly when (apparently) the “the feed company covers the cost of shipping” agreement ends, and it passes to the customer
It will be interesting to see what happens in 6 months or so
I found the line carried here, and this product is only $4 less than on Chewy, with free shipping with only a $99 purchase
2 Likes
Out of curiosity, I went back on Chewy and sorted the horse feeds by newest. And another brand I haven’t seen before popped up! Called Keyflow USA, but it’s from the U.K. (originally, I guess).
https://www.chewy.com/f/keyflow-usa_f1v18062
Annnd discuss! 
ETA: Have to admit I’m intrigued by this oil product of theirs. I currently use EO-3 oil, and this might be a cheaper alternative. $70 for 5 liters (1.25 gallon) versus ~$50 for a quart of EO-3 (or $116 for a gallon from Smartpak). https://www.chewy.com/keyflow-key-3-oil-high-fat-horse-feed/dp/1215542
My 2 Chewy orders have been riding back and forth “Out for Delivery” and back to the Fed Ex terminal for 4 days and counting.
Fed Ex is just awful, I wish we had an option to use UPS or USPS.
3 Likes
I keep getting ads for Keyflow on different social media apps (mostly Facebook I think). I’ve been intrigued by their Pink Mash (especially the Condition version), but I’m having a hard time figuring out how this is much different than regular old beet pulp, and why it should cost so much more? Is there a bit nutritional difference between beet pulp and beet root? It also contains soya hull (assuming same as soy hulls?) so not great for people trying to avoid soy.
I’ve had my guy on Keyflow Pink Mash for almost a year now and it’s been a game changer for him. Most noticeable is just how much he chilled out… went from explosive worrier to thoughtful spicy. I used the Stay Cool for a bit to top dress his oats, but dropped it purely for economical reasons. Overall, his coat bloomed even more than it already had once I added the Pink Mash. I feed a cup worth per day, split between two feedings. It soaks up super fast, by the time you finish pulling up feed for the other ten horses, it’s already fully soaked. For whatever reason, none of mine have found soaked beet pulp to be particularly palatable, but the Pink Mash gets gobbled down.
4 Likes
because it’s not beet pulp, it’s beetroot which is the beet that people eat, soy hulls (fiber) and flax, as well as pre- and probiotics. I don’t know anything about their Protexin biotics to know how well they might work though.
it’s a UK product that I think is not milled here, so shipped overseas
Yes, big difference. There’s a good bit of info on the web on the healthy properties of beets. I have not done the research to see how much you have to feed to potentially see benefits
A lot of horses who can’t do soymeal, which has high phytoestrogens and low fiber, can do soy hulls which has little phytoestrogens and high fiber
6 Likes
Thank you for the info! So they’re using actual beets instead of a sugar beet byproduct. That makes more sense. I haven’t seen or heard much about feeding beets to horses.
Thanks for sharing! I have heard reports from others who use it and love it, so that’s why I was interested for my hard keeper OTTB mare. She DOES like soaked beet pulp, as do the rest of my herd. Sounds like its a bit more economical if you can see results from feeing only a cup per day; at $55 for 33 lbs (or $60 for 33lbs if you buy the Condition) it was making me a bit nervous to try to swap out for beet pulp entirely (my mare currently gets over 3 pounds a day of soaked bp).
It’s much more a UK thing (not sure if Europe in general), than a US thing. I don’t know if beets are easier to grow there than here? Or maybe we eat a lot more beets than they do so there isn’t a lot left over LOL
1 Like
It’s been worth the cost for me and hasn’t added much/any inconvenience to the feeding routine. I’ve also used it as a snack before hauling or showing but do have to mix it with his grain or he gets the runs. Also occasionally give him a post-workout snack with heavily soaked PM when it’s super hot out.
A barn mate uses PM Condition for her guy who tends to be a harder keeper. Not sure if the Condition or dialing in with a different feed regimen made more difference for him, but he finally put on good weight.
