I am curious on the details of your feeding program and what (if anything) led you to your final combination?
In particular, I am interested in 1) what type and how much feed, supplements, and hay; 2) rough location; and 3) the lifestyle and attributes of your horse (lives indoors/outdoors, shows regularly, breed, age).
Why? What problem are you trying to solve? Random feeding arrangements for a couple dozen ponies, horses, retired, performance, on stall rest, foundered or IR: not going to be terribly helpful or indeed interesting to you to read.
I’ve arrived at my current feeding program for him over several years of working to improve his health/fitness. Fed Purina Equine Senior for several years but thought I could do better. Got recommendations here on COTH to try the ProElite. Very happy with the change. The added fat in the ProElite has held his weight well vs using the Purina Equine Senior+Amplify fat supplement that I used last year. The year before I did the Equine Senior + Rice Bran.
I normally feed a lovely, soft, thin stemmed Bermuda hay. But the weather here last year was disastrous for local Bermuda growers (and other hay growers too) and he just couldn’t eat the Bermuda we’re getting from our long time supplier. Too stemmy and coarse. So while my other two are fine on it, he’s getting very expensive (twice what we typically pay per bale of Bermuda), but beautiful orchard grass that is soft, fine and thankfully, chewable for him. 
It’s the prettiest hay I’ve have had here on my farm, and if I had endless pockets, I’d feed it to everyone. Here’s hoping that this year’s weather is more cooperative for hay growers in the area.
This is his fall/winter regiment. In late spring/summer he turns into a virtual air fern and needs no hay and goes down to one meal a day of just 1.5 pounds senior+ 1.5 pounds Alfalfa + his flax supplement made into a mash. I start easing off the feed a bit at a time at the end of Feb/beginning of March once his shedding is in full swing. By May he’s on his summer feeding schedule until mid/late October. I am seriously considering swapping to a balancer this year for summer, since he gets so little feed.
I have three and they’re each on a different feed program, and with such a novel I’ve just written, figured I’d just do one horse. 
@Scribbler
That’s exactly what I am interested in! Curious on the various feeding arrangements people are making for the diversity of horse population. In particular, how each individual tackles our horses’ inputs across varying characteristics.
Nothing to solve here… Sometimes I want to hear from our community.
This is brilliant. Did you switch over to ProElite for each of yours or just this guy?
Just him. He turned into a hard keeper in winter about 4 years ago. We’ve made numerous changes over that 4 year period. When the vet did his physical last Sept she said he looked like a different horse. So at least we’re headed in the right direction.
The biggest change was separating him from his two brothers - permanently. Even at his size, he was surprisingly the low guy on the totem pole. The little Welsh pony could scare him away from a pile of hay. The only solution was to have him be by himself, with no competition for food, grazing, hay, etc. It was the right decision, but it was painful.
We don’t have a setup with large pastures next to one another - I have a 4 acre pasture in front and a 4 acre pasture + 1/2 acre paddock in back. So he’s in the front and my other two are in the back. I visit him several times a day. He’s okay alone - not depressed or anything. Actually, he’s thriving (which a lot of horses wouldn’t be if left alone. I think it’s his demeanor/temperament). We’re hoping finances will allow us to get him two new goat babies this year. We’ll see.
Air fern mare in PNW, in a stall/runout.
Measured about 15 lbs Timothy in 5 feedings.
Small beet pulp mash with one cup oats, one cup flax, salt, vitamin mineral supplement.
Basic menu learned from my coach, reinforced by Coursera nutrition course. Aim: shiny health without obesity.
Mare is 16 hands, big muscled Paint, tapes at 1275 lbs.
Florida
Mare (2009 OTTB)
-5 lbs daily Seminole Profecta 12
-3 lbs daily alfalfa cubes
-Copper and zinc supplemented in spring/summer for hoof health and to prevent sunbleaching
-Worked 5-6x/week, 40-60 mins each
-Try to get to a couple shows per year
Gelding (1998 OTTB)
-5 lbs daily Seminole Profecta 12
-Retired, has navicular disease
Free choice hay, Tifton, ~28 lbs eaten per day per horse.
Both are out 24/7.
I switched the mare to grains with no molasses and no corn a few years back to keep ulcers at bay. Last year I switched to Profecta 12 for a combination of reasons - the Tribute I was feeding is way more expensive here than it was in Ohio, I didn’t love the Hubbard Life Cool Command I had switched to to replace the Tribute and the place I was getting it from stopped selling the bedding I like, I wanted to be able to get grain and bedding in one location. The Profecta 12 unfortunately has corn, but does not have molasses. She was good for like six months then had a slew of crap happen this summer that made her ulcers return. She’s currently getting ranitidine, and fingers crossed, but when she comes off it, if the ulcers return, I’ll be on the search for a new grain again. Gelding gets the same grain just for convenience.
10yo OTTB gelding. Hard keeper and semi fussy eater. If there is a change in his routine, he will fret and worry and go off grain for a day or so. He will continue eating hay like normal.
2 3qt scoops of Sentinel LS 2x/day. Originally I thought it was 4 lbs/feeding, but I weighed it a few days ago and it was 6 lbs/feeding.
Free choice grass hay. Sometimes it’s an alfalfa/grass mix. I honestly don’t know how many lbs/day he eats, but he’s eating constantly.
He lives out 24/7 with two run in sheds in PA. He’s in light-moderate work during the winter (I ride him every day for about 30 minutes.) He works a lot more in spring/summer/fall, usually 45 minutes to an hour.
He lives in a medium sized group (about 8-ish other horses, all mares) and does well. He’s between 1200-1300 lbs currently. He eats much better when he’s out 24/7 because he hates being stalled. The group is in a sacrifice area for the winter but has access to a large pasture in warm weather. It’s approx. 10-15 acres, not sure exactly. He is usually heavier in the summer due to grass.
AM Feed:
-1 scoop of a custom CO-OP feed that my coach special orders for the whole property (it would be similar make up to Pinnacle 1200)
-3-4 flakes of high quality hay (in the summer we get it from one field, but in the winter it is sourced from many people and variety)
*he also gets 2 flakes of hay around noon for luch
PM Feed:
-1 scoop of the custom CO-OP feed
-1 scoop of the Platinum Performance CJ ( this is currently a preventitive measure as he is relatively young and hasn’t done much intense work)
My horse is a 17.2 jumper, located in South Tennessee near the Alabama, Tennessee boarder. He is an imported Oldenburg/ Holsteiner cross and he lives mainly inside, because of the weather lately. When the paddocks are nice he will go out for a couple hours, but there is not much to graze on. He is ridden 6 days a week and 2 of those are jumping lessons to gear up for our horse show coming up.
He holds weight pretty well, but can get a little ribby. Right now he looks better than he has ever looked, and I probably should note that my coach does like the horses a little rounder body condition wise. I learned all about feeding from her and this diet is very similar to what her competition horses are on.
I feed based on the caloric necessity of the horse. Volume is POINTLESS in feed. Generally, I shoot for 20,000 calories per day for horses in work, going up to 45,000 calories per day for horses going full on long format 3-day or racing.
The feed is a mix of hay (roughly 20% body weight) with the rest made up by a mix of compete feeds and fat.
The question is so vague as to be specious. There is no one, or even several, feed program that is optimum.
I work through the vet school’s nutrition program to develop my knowledge.
Someone on this board told me I was foolish to do my feeding this way, but my vet of 30+ years (who owns 60 horses himself) suggested it: I call ADM customer service and ask for their feed expert, give all my details including my hay analysis, horse type of use, and condition. Sometimes they have me email a photo of the horse to see weight/shape, condition. Then I listen to what he expert tells me, and follow their advice using their product. Supplements per vet are Lubrisyn, every other day Pevicox (for the ancient horses with arthritis), and Red Cell for the most elderly horse.
Now the person on this board told me that 1) I should be able to figure out what my horses’ need by reading feed labels (yeah, well I didn’t do so well in math and all those % confuse me). Second she said that the ADM people "don’t know what they are talking about, just want to sell feed… Third she told me “vets don’t know anything about nutrition as it isn’t covered in vet school.” Ok, I understand what she’s saying --except that if I were ADM, and I wanted customers to be pleased with my product, I would hire the best person I could who knows about feed and horses’ needs. And I’m guessing that person knows more than I do and, since it’s her job, keeps current on the studies done. As far as vets not studying nutrition in vet school --maybe not --but to get into vet school (I applied 3 times and did not make the cut) the vet student needs to be one smart cookie). Even if my vet didn’t study nutrition in vet school, my guess is since it is important to him (as I said, he has a huge breeding operation involving 60 horses) he made it a personal mission to learn about horse nutrition.
Most recently ADM’s suggestions have been spot on --and last time I called --because we’d successfully put 500 pounds on a very sick, very thin horse who was now completely recovered and I didn’t want him to carry too much weight on his arthritic joints --ADM suggested eliminating one of the feeds we were giving the horse --he got a mix of Health Glo, Senior Glo and Power Glo --their suggestion was to check his weight, the eliminate Healthy Go and see how he maintains. Doesn’t seem to me like they are trying to sell feed, but doing what’s best for the horse! Oh, it took us 6 months to put 500 pounds on that horse --and I switched to a nose bag since he seemed to spread his feed instead of eat it. Now I KNOW he gets it into his tummy!
San Diego County
Paint, 16.1 mare
AM
1.5 lbs nutrena ration balancer
supplements
2-4 big flakes of alfalfa grass mix (if someone is home during the day this will be split into multiple feedings)
PM
1.5 lbs safe choice green bag (can’t remember which one it is off the top of my head)
2-4 big flakes alfalfa grass mix
Pony, ~10 hands mare
AM
handful local grain, comparable to strategy
multi-vitamin supplement
1-2 big flakes Bermuda hay in small hole hay net
PM
handful of same grain
1-2 big flake Bermuda hay in net
I don’t have the ability to weigh hay or give free choice, hay is super $$ here. With the net the pony normally has hay at all times and she’s a super hay waster without it. Horse can’t use a net due to vets orders to prevent breathing dust, it is slightly soaked but she wont eat fully soaked hay. Both look truly amazing at the moment, horse looks so much better than when she was getting free choice grass hay in VA. Vets very happy with them right now. Pony is a pasture pet that has a stall for raining days, however there’s no grass around here. Horse is stalled during the day and out at night. She gets riding 4 or so times a week.
Super simple. Take your household scale out to the barn. Stand on it. Get weight. Pick up hay bale, stand on scale, get weight. Subtract first number from second to get bale weight.
Then use a weight tape to approximate your horse’s weight.
Then you can more closely match things.
You at least feed a ration balancer. Hay, by itself does NOT have all the nutrition needed by horses. So even a hay only diet should have a ration balancer.
another way to weigh hay, is get a fish or luggage scale from the hardware store. Under $10.
Get a big shopping bag like Costco or IKEA sell for $1, that holds several flakes. Or a net if you use a net.
Put the hay in the bag or net and weight with the scale…
this is the only way to know how much you are feeding in pounds. Flakes are very misleading.
Free choice hay (timothy/grass roundbales). Grass field in the summer. No supplements. About 5x per week when I come to ride he gets approx. 1-2lbs of essential K. He doesn’t need the calories, he just likes the treat and it helps with vit/min. It’s also something that I can hide meds in if I need too. He also has 24/7 access to a mineral block and a plain salt block.
Ontario
3)Horse lives out 24/7. Flatted/hacked 4x per week. Jumping lesson once per week. 5-10 shows per year. 3’6" A/O hunter. 2009 Oldenburg gelding. Has been living this lifestyle since he was 6. Mentally he can’t deal with being stalled at home. At a show he’s tired and there’s lots going on so he’s all right.
He’s a very easy keeper. Always has a great coat. Has great feet.
A formerly hard keeper OTTB. When he was a hard keeper, he was on free choice hay and 3 feeds per day of – I don’t even remember to be honest, it included beet pulp and a ration balancer. A change of barns meant he got to be out on grass 24/7 except for winter months. I thought he would starve to death on nothing but grass. Wrong. He never has looked so good and we have not looked back. From March/April until mid November, he is out on grass. The pastures are rotated and maintained, and it is a former dairy cattle pasture, so the pasture is healthy and the grass is good. During winter months when stabled he is now on as much hay as he wants when in his stall ( generally overnight) and turned out about 8 hours per day. There is still grazing available but not good quality in the turn out as its winter. He goes through a square bale in about 2-3 days. He gets 3 scoops of flash dried grass for an evening meal ( so he does not feel left out when the others get their grain). He keeps his weight far better than he did before. I let him be my guide as to what suits him. All forage has been what works for him.
AM- 1lb KER Ovation
1lb KER Releve Sport
(Note- he only gets AM grain on days he works, typically 5-6x per week)
PM- 2lbs KER Ovatkon
2lbs KER Releve Sport
Electrolyte
4-way Multi supplement (gastro, coat/hoof, vit/min, joint)
Sand Clear (one week at the end of each month)
Free choice alfalfa, eats approx 28lbs per day
Pasture 24/7 (there is grass right now, but it’s winter pasture and not lush)
Horse is a 10yo TB gelding . He is in FL and lives out 24/7. Competes 2x a month, eventing. He is in good weight. We usually do a month of gastrogard once a year as he has had ulcers in the past, but no other health issues .
I have 3 horses. They’re all fairly simple. I live on the Front Range/High Plains of CO
19 year old Selle Francais mare. In full work as a 3’3-3’6 jumper. She’s naturally an air fern and lives outside on 40 acres with a herd of 15 other mares. They get free choice orchard grass hay and a ration balancer (Triple Crown Lite). It works super well for her.
17 year old TB and 26 year old Selle Francais geldings. Both mostly retired. Free choice orchard/alfalfa and 3 quarts (1x daily) of Triple Crown Senior with Smartpak Senior Ultra Combo pellets. Both in great weight and happy/healthy (aside from the injury/age that caused retirement). They live outside together on 15 acres but our forage is not good enough to sustain so hay is fed year round.
I request photos when(/if) that happens!
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