Head’s up to those feeding Vermont Blend or looking into it - While perusing the CEN website this morning, I discovered that it now comes in pellet form. This could be a game-changer for finicky eaters, and/or those in boarding situations.
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What??? I have been waiting so long for this!!!
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I would keep waiting.
$159 a 50 pound bag plus shipping???
OUCH. That is pricy .
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Shipping is free. 
It’s a 106-day supply (~3.5 months) for one horse, and covers most of the bases if it matches your forage appropriately. Half the daily dose of salt, Magnesium, Copper, Zinc, Selenium, Amino Acids, probiotics, Biotin. Just need to add an omega source and a vitamin E source if your horses don’t get ample fresh grass, and you’re covering your horse’s nutritional bases.
I use the regular VT Blend Pro. You only feed a little bit. I’ve been very happy with it. More of the important stuff and less filler/random marketing stuff. Beats the heck out of supplements like Farrier’s Formula and Platinum 
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I wonder if mine would find this less offensive than the powder. Probably not.
I fed VB and then VB pro for years, but last year all my horses started refusing it. 
I still have probably 20lb of it tucked away in sealed tubs.
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That’s why I’m excited. My air fern mare refuses to eat the powder. I assume the pellets will be acceptable. And she has a trial size so you don’t need to buy the entire huge bag to see.
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Thanks for posting this and about the trial size. I have some fatties that would do well on this!
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I see that the pellets have both artificial and natural flavors added, so perhaps they will be more palatable than the powder?
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I may try it. Mine will eat KIS, but it’s a lot. They won’t touch any of the VB powders.
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I have been wishing someone would come out with a forage balancer(ish, creeping into ration balancer territory) pellet that tasted good enough to feed without a carrier 
if I was more business savvy, I’d look into doing it myself.
I might have to give this a try though.
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Did you ever try the omneity pellets? I assume they are more palatable than the premix.
I’m working my way through a bag of the premix. Maresy decided halfway through that it’s not acceptable any longer. Now I have to toss in a handful of triple crown senior to get her to eat it. Or disguise it in a lot of alfalfa cubes.
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My horse will eat the Omneity pellets without a carrier if needed, actually he’ll beg for them!
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I was just about to give up on VB! My mare was happy (and looking great) with the flax/vitamin E but she despises the VB balancer. I’ve been trying everything to get her to tolerate it because it’s got everything she should have without the extra bad stuff. Will give the trial size of the pellets a try-thank you for posting!
Edit: Just saw themVB pellets have wheat and artificial flavoring added. Ugh.
Have Mad Barn back on the top of the list of balancers to try
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Well that is something. Every little bit helps.
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I feed VB Pro and prior to that CalTrace Plus. I started with the pellets and he wouldn’t touch them (or the loose mix) until I started spraying his meal with very diluted molasses. After I weaned him off that he was good and no complaints when i switched over to VB Pro. Maybe the pellets will be more palatable but def worth getting the sample to see! I don’t love how much of the loose mix I breathe in when I prep containers, but it doesn’t look like they offer the pellets in the Pro.
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The GA between the VB Pro, VB, and the VB pellets are identical except for the prebiotics in the Pro. It does look like the serving of the pellets are more in line with the regular VB, so you are feeding a larger volume, which is a downside versus the Pro.
I’ll be sticking with the VB Pro because I’ve found a system that gets everyone to eat it happily, but if I had any real major holdouts who just wouldn’t touch it, I wouldn’t hesitate to try the pellets.
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Can you share your system? Mine just wouldn’t eat it.
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I can’t promise it’ll work for everyone, and it’s a bit of a pain in the rear, but it’s got my pickiest b****rd eating it consistently, so… however, I’m feeding TBs and a WB without metabolic issues, so this would require tweaking with easier keepers. Also, I have mine at home. I have no idea how I’d make this work if I had to make it boarding barn friendly. I guess it wouldn’t be too bad, but definitely not as simple as dunk in bucket > add water > feed.
For context, what everyone is currently eating:
~1lb (4 cups, but weighed before setting the size of the scoop) TC Naturals Timothy Balance Cubes - it also worked fine with regular timothy pellets I just like the consistency of the cubes
~1lb (approx 4 cups, but weighed before setting the size of the scoop) TC Sr Gold (also worked with regular Sr)
~2-3oz VB Pro (depending on weight)
1/2 tbsp Custom Equine Nutrition Cu/Zn
2-4 tbsp plain white salt (currently feeding 4 tbsp due to heat wave)
1 cup flax (1/2c for the ones on W-3)
75mL W-3 oil (only two are on this, the super picky one and another I’d like a little more bloom on)
2000IU Emcelle Vit E
Lord this sounds insane writing it all out, but here goes:
- The Sr/tasty food needs to go in the buckets first (so they’re eating from least tasty - most tasty). Then cubes. If you pre-bag, pre-bag the feed separate from the supplements, and put the feeds in reverse order, cubes/hay pellets first, tasty stuff on top so it ends up on the bottom of the bucket.
- Soak however long you want.
- Add supplements after soaking. Three don’t seem to care what order I add supplements in, picky one does. Picky one also doesn’t really like it when I had supplement cups going where they were all mixed, but doesn’t mind these little takeout trays where the supplements don’t touch.
Add dry supps, then Emcelle, then top with W-3. - Top with a sprinkle of more Sr/tasty feed over the supplements.
- Mix well. Serve.
I can feed less Senior when I’m feeding less salt (gets down to ~2cups with the less picky ones, ~3ish cups with the pickiest one) during the winter. Honestly some of them would probably eat it just in 1 straight pound of Senior, but I like the additional volume of water I can get in them with the cubes. Also, not gonna lie, it’s taken years to get the picky one to find something he really likes, and this has consistently worked for over a year now, and I’m too afraid to change anything 
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Thank you! I would be more than willing to do this…except there is no way mine will eat TC Senior Gold. Nor will he touch Oil. Thank you again for going to the trouble of sharing this.
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Would he eat regular TC Senior? I used it with regular TC Senior for several months before my store picked up the Gold. And I honestly don’t think it’s mandatory which one, just whatever one the horse likes to eat. It’s not like I’m really feeding enough of it to get the major benefits, except the slightly lower NSC, but it makes me feel better to spend the money. And the oil is optional, the picky guy just really happens to like it, the next-pickiest doesn’t, so he just gets more flax.
Other feeds I also experimented with in various quantities: LMF Senior (kept to ~2cups, worked okay, not consistent); TC Complete (~1-2 cups, worked okay, not consistent); Integrity Performance (~1-2 cups, worked pretty well, but expensive and is basically crack, I felt better about a Sr); Integrity Senior (~2 cups, didn’t work); LMF Gold (~2cups, they didn’t like it, is basically crack, gave half the bag to a friend). Never could bring myself to try Omolene.
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