I am currently evaluating different grain options for my mare and would love some opinions. She is a big bodied warmblood, doing 2nd and 3rd level dressage 4 days per week, and is an easy keeper. Currently the barn where I board provides a sweet feed and she gets various supplements. I would love to get her on a grain that is nutrient rich enough that I could get her off her supplements, with the exception of ColicCare. I’ve looked at Cavalor Endurix and Crypto Aero…but have just begun my research.
Would love to get some insight from the community!
I think you’re thinking too narrowly by framing it as “what grain is best for a dressage horse”.
What supplements is she getting? Depending on what they are, there may not be one complete feed that meets all her needs. Also keep in mind what the “serving size” is for any given feed - one may require 2 lbs be fed daily to meet the described nutritional information, and another may require 6 lbs. If she’s an easy keeper, she may not need large amounts of hard feed or it may actually cause problems.
Also - why are you looking to switch? Is there a specific performance reason? Is she not doing well on the feed she is currently getting?
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I should probably change the title…just tried to find something succinct.
I am looking to make a switch because I don’t particularly like how much molasses is in the sweet feed that she’s getting but it’s been several years since I’ve evaluated the various grain options in the market - so I’m just looking to hear what riders like best as a jumping off point.
What supplements are you trying to replace? How much and what type of grain or sweet feed is she getting now so we have an idea of calories she needs?
I am guessing a good quality complete feed like TC or Seminole will be a good start. I haven’t been able to find any data on what is actually in Cavalor so I suspect it is largely marketing hype. Crypto Aero has been discussed here quite a bit and it is ok, but nothing special - a standard grain with a bunch of extra fluff that doesn’t do much but raise the price.
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She’s on an energy supplement that is high in copper, B12, and folic acid. She’s also on a daily vitamin supplement with about 40 different ingredients but is particularly high in vitamins A, E, and D.
Thanks for the heads up on Crypto Aero…I suspected a lot of hype.
I feed Cavalor. My horses look really good on it. The ingredients are easy to find, just google cavalor us and they have a website and ingredients and nutritional content are up there for each feed. They claim that their grain (and it is grain) is specially processed so that it has slow release of glucose to avoid the sugar spike. I believe them. I have been feeding it to my IR gelding and he looks the best he ever has and has almost totally gotten off his ulcer meds (except for times like when he has to move stalls and gets stressed).
I feed Cavalor Strucomix Original with Renew Gold for extra fat. My easy keeper mare gets Cavalor 50/50 (1 lb) with a half serving of additional vitamins.
Now if I didn’t have such a special snowflake of a boy, I would probably still be feeding Purina Ultium. But I am saving so much money by not having to keep him on gut supplements (HorseTech GutWerks) and Omeprazole that it is worth every penny. And he is a very picky eater, and he digs right in.
The type of grain I like depends on what horse I’m trying to feed. I am a big fan of Legends feed. Very palatable and consistent. Dependent on how much sweet feed your horse gets now, you might want to look at just adding a ration balancer. Or is she needs more calories than use a Senior feed that easy to digest.
I’m not a Cavalor fan because I can mix it myself for much cheaper and I still have to add a vitamin/mineral supplement to it.
I also feed cavalor and love it. I feed two different types strucomix senior which has joint supplements in it and is very low in sugar and starch for a senior feed and fiberforce which has supplements to prevent ulcers. I also added on their gastro 8 ulcer supplement because he had some chronic ulcers that weren’t going away with just the fiberforce. I had him on ulcerguard for a year and it did nothing. Now after about 3 weeks of the gastro 8 he has no ulcer symptoms. I was able to take him off all other supplements and he’s never looked better
I am very old fashioned.
I prefer good, clean whole Western Oats. My horses loved eating them, they kept in good condition, and cleaned up their buckets. As needed I would add Alfalfa pellets (calcium/phosphorus ratios) and during the cold months I gave them whole corn until the Springtime. I also gave them trace mineral salt and VERY limited grazing (30 minutes to an hour) during the grass growing seasons. Of course I also fed them hay, usually grass hay.
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Buckeye Cadence Ultra. Full of goodies, and low carb.
How easy is your easy keeper? If she’s eating 2# of feed a day or less, a ration balancer is your ticket and will replace at least your vit/min supplement. Frankly, use whatever is locally available. I have used TC 30%, Legends CarbCare Balancer, Purina Enrich, etc… The various manufacturers all produce a pretty similar ration balancer product.
If she needs more calories than a ration balancer provides, that’s where you start finding bigger differences between product lines. I have one sort of moderate keeper who thrives on 4-6# of Legends CarbCare Performance, depending on time of year. I feed a lot of Triple Crown, but none of their products worked as well for this particular horse.
The question is too open-ended.
How much of that feed does she get now? How’s her weight on it?
Crypto Aero is 28.3% NSC, so no better than your sweet feed. It’s also unfortified and unbalanced. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, no poor ingredients, you do know exactly what you’re getting, but if you feed enough to make a difference, the NSC is significant, and if you feed just a little, then why bother LOL
I don’t know the NSC of the Endurix, though it’s probably not low, with oats being the first ingredient.
What brands do you have available?
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Cavalor says that the way they cook (puff) their grain changes how the starch gets digested, slows the digesting down so it doesn’t release all the sugar right away. Essentially the claim is that is digest like a much lower starch feed would. the Endurix is really for VERY heavily worked horses. I would look at Performix or Strucomix original.
I currently feed Equus FiberMax Omega and am very happy with it. I have a big-bodied, 11 year-old Oldenberg gelding who is very very mellow. He does dressage five days a week, one day hacking, one day off. On the FiberMax Omega he has lost fat but has more muscle and is much fresher than he had been when I fed him oats with supplements. He has always had a good coat but it is better with the FiberMax Omega.
I’m not a fan of any bagged feed…Cavalor and Crypto both begin with the letter ‘C’ which in this case stands for candy. The NSC is too high and the nutritional value is minimal. If your horse is an easy keeper a quality ration balancer such as Triple Crown 30 might fit the bill. I personally feed HorseTech High Point Grass with Alfalfa pellets and flax and my horse looks great.
Most people have switched from feeding grain to feeding a balanced, roughage based concentrate. There are many options out there. I personally prefer Triple Crown products, I feel that they are at the forefront of research and development, and put high quality products out there.
What kind of hay and how much is your horse getting a day? Any pasture, and if so, how many hours a day and what quality?
What are you currently feeding, how many pounds a day, what is the guaranteed analysis and list of ingredients?
For an easy keeper, I’d go with TC Lite or TC Low Starch. With your horse in work, she may need more calories, so you can look at their various products. They are good about recommending products if you go to their website and contact them.
https://www.triplecrownfeed.com/
Adding that products should be fed according to the directions on the bag/label.
I’m not a fan of bagged (advertised as complete) feed either as JLR1 said – and I’m with Palm Beach on feeding roughage based – forage based. Low NSC as possible – cool calories + fat. I feed Triple Crown Lite mixed with alfalfa pellets, Renew Gold and beet pulp shreds without molasses. Mix doesn’t eliminate the need for added vit/mineral supplements – depends on my individual horse’s needs.
The BM at my old barn was a vet tech who did a lot of work with equine nutrition in a breeding program, she fed Tribute Kalm N EZ. I really trust her judgement, and my mare has thrived on it. It is low NSC, has probiotics, and a nice balance of vitamins and minerals. I like the textured variety because it smells so good 
We feed the smallest amount, I do 3# a day for an 800# horse, with access to the best quality timothy/alfalfa I can get. We increase hay, not grain to add calories. But Bella is in light work, so you might need more calories in more strenuous dressage training.
Sounds like Triple Crown Senior but probably a lot less expensive.
I can’t speak to this particular Cavalor feed, but I can say that there are several of its products which are below, to well below 20% NSC, and the nutritional value of those is on par with many of the “traditional” quality feeds.
Strucomix Senior is 18% NSC
Strucomix Original is 15.3%
Fiberforce is 8%
The US formulas aren’t the same as the European formulas. Some that contain corn there, don’t here, for example.
