What’s everyone feeding their senior horses that are still being ridden 3-4 times a week? This horse is going off grain.
Mad Barn has a pretty comprehensive pellet called Omneity. They also have a database of most grain and supplements to compare any other suggestions you receive. California Trace is also good but that’s more of a supplement to be used with grain so it doesn’t really have everything needed to be a true balancer.
Hmm scislandspirite … I thought it was the other way. Omneity was intended to use with grain, Amino Trace is the more fortified supplement more similar to California Trace/Arizona Copper Complete.
Mine is IR so I prefer the Amino Trace to follow Pete Ramey’s protocol (www.hoofrehab.com/diet)
Both Amino Trace and Omneity are a complete supplement. Does not need to be fed with grain. However I have never met a horse that will eat Amino Trace without a carrier 
Omneity is aimed to “replace your traditional high-inclusion ration balancer and fortify hay only diets or those where less than 4 kg (9lbs) of commercial complete feed is fed.” so both AminoTrace+ & Omneity can be fed alone! I was told to go with Omneity instead of AminoTrace+ since she’s retired. Thanks for the link, I’ll check it out!
Not familiar with Arizona Copper Complete but I believe California Trace is missing some things that Omneity & AminoTrace+ have in their Guaranteed Analysis. I will make & link a Google Sheet to highlight the differences between the three for reference!
Edited to fix a typo & add a little clarification.
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I have never heard of Mad Barn, why do you like their supplements?
Alright, here is the table comparing Mad Barn (AminoTrace+ & Omneity) vs. California Trace. California Trace is in mg & IU whereas some of Mad Barn’s units are g & KIU. 1g = 1000mg, 1KIU = 1000IU. Also, both Omneity & AminoTrace+ have more in their guaranteed analysis when you click on the linked websites in the Google Sheet, I only put in the values from the summary as there’s quite a bit outside of that.
I like both Mad Barn and California Trace. I’ve heard great things about both brands! However, Mad Barn’s Omneity is more complete for my specific horse’s needs. She is only on forage so I would need to add additional supplements along with California Trace to give her all minerals and vitamins. As mentioned, AminoTrace+ is great as well but my horse is retired so Omneity was recommended to me instead.
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MadBarn is a fairly new Canadian company that has worked with the equine Cusihings Insulin Resistance group to make a VMS comparable to California Trace for the Canadian market. They do a lot of other good products as do Herbs for Horses.
If you are in the US you have other options but MadBarn makes the best VMS in Canada at this point as far as I can tell.
A lot of American feeds aren’t distributed in Canada.
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What does this mean? He doesn’t like it anymore? You’re removing it? What grain and how much?
“Senior” and “ridden 3-4 times a week” don’t help us “see” the horse.
It’s not meant to be fed with “grain”. It’s a forage balancer that does a great job balancing a lot of forages, and a not so great job balancing others, which is the same thing that can be said about any ration balancer
Amino Trace has a whole lot more than CT or ACC have. Of what they have that’s the same, some are in higher amounts, some aren’t. Omneity has a whole lot of things, some in appreciable amounts (like cu, zn, ca, p, se, mn, and others), and some in negligible amounts (amino acids)
Neither one are any I’d add to a regular feed or ration balancer, unless maybe at a 1/2 serving if you were under-feeding that other feed
Neither are “complete”. Omneity has almost amino acids. Amino Trace has very little calcium and potassium
CT is very targeted in what it has. Amino acids, trace minerals, that’s it’s thing, as those are usually the biggest deficiencies in typical grass forages.
Vitamin/Mineral/Hoof Supplement comparison - Google Sheets
Edit because I forgot to add - this isn’t my sheet, someone else made it
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For clarification, most of the people I know using CT use it in conjunction with something else because of their specific hay analysis. Not saying that CT isn’t a forage balancer & must be fed with grain. More so was trying to explain that my situation/location needed something less targeted than CT if that makes any sense at all? Aka mention Omneity as another option in case OP also was in a location that may warrant a balancer/supplement with a few more things.
Also thanks for providing your Google Sheet! Makes a lot more sense than the one I tried to make. Just to clarify, are the better supplements on the left (in green) and then towards the right the supplements are less good?
Med Vet Pharmaceuticals has a great all around supplement called Exceed 6-way. You should take a look! Many report their older horses run around the pasture and act like colts again. I as well give my this supplement to my horses. Best one I’ve run into thus far.
I don’t know what the color coding means, other than maybe different categories, but none of them are “good” or “less good”, they’re just different. The list contains forage balancers (like California Trace, Arizona Copper Complete, etc, they are on the left and in green. Some are “traditional” hoof supplements which are in yellow. The red seems to be mostly ration balancers but I didn’t look again all the way to see if they all are.
That’s just a totally different category, with all kinds of joint ingredients and some gut health ingredients. Amino acids are low, trace minerals are moderate (which is all some horses need, that’s no a bad thing). It’s just quite different from the others listed, but if you need the convenience of decent v/m support, plus gut health, plus joint support, it’s definitely got good amounts of those additional things.
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I feed California trace, actually just moved all three horses to it. They were getting fat off of ration balancer.
I feed it with unlimited 2nd cut orchard/alfalfa hay, beet pulp, soaked alfalfa cubes to my harder keeper. He looks great on it.
My easy keepers get California Trace, beet pulp, timothy cubes, plus first cut grass hay in a slow feed hay net.
They all look great. When I added these diets in feedxl they are reasonably balanced and my vet has no issues with it.
This is what I am doing. My horse is getting fat on a ration balancer, especially in the summer on grass (3 hrs a day). Currently, she is being fed hay and timothy hay pellets soaked in water. When I take her off the ration balancer, need a quality vitamin/mineral supplement. What is feedxl?
I can’t imagine there’s enough calories in N RB to make a horse fat. Unlimited hay or grass is more likely.
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FeedXL is basically a nutrition program with the goal of analyzing if your horse’s nutritional needs are being met based off of their supplements, grain, and hay. I’ve never used it but people I know seem to like it
Sometimes it’s a combination of the extra 1200-1300 calories, plus the soy, which just doesn’t agree with some horses.
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I use High Point Grass Pellets for my very easy keeping, mostly retired mare whose forage is first cut mixed grass hay. I tried it as a powder, and she was not a fan. The pellets are a little more caloric, of course. (Thanks to JB for recommending it!) They also make a version for use with alfalfa forage.
I am adding a little extra protein in the form of Uckele tri-amino supplement.
It would be easier and less expensive to have her on a ration balancer, but have had great results keeping her tendency to get ulcers at bay using a cup of Purina Outlast in each of her 2 meals. To keep calories low enough, I had to cut elsewhere. An easy keeper who is prone to ulcers is a bit “special.” (The Purina balancer with Outlast has too high a daily feeding rate, 2 pounds I think.)
Oh yay, glad that worked!
FWIW Horsetech Nutramino is the same thing, and cheaper
I hear you on that, not only are these “easy keepers” so hard to keep weight off, they are often harder on the wallet to feed well :’(
Yep, 2lb for the average horse, which makes it pretty costly relative to other balancers
Thank you for the tip on Nutramino. I won’t need it for a while, because I accidentally signed up for Autoship for it from SmartPak, and now have 2 extra containers to get through.
The expense is mostly because the barn includes “grain” or “feed” in the board cost, but not “supplements.” Oddly enough, they include Outlast as a “feed.” So the V/M is on me, 1/2 cup per day is about a dollar a day. The amino acids maybe another dollar??? But she really thrives on the Outlast. It is important right now because she’s officially on a hay diet (15-18 pounds per day) … She is down to 950 pounds, from 980 (using a weight tape), and I’d love another 25-30 pounds off her, but I am not sure it’s possible. She’s 15 hands and light-boned, weighed 850 pounds when she was younger and eventing-fit, and it was hard to keep weight on her. Got up to 1050 in semi-retirement, which is way too much.
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