I am sure there are plenty of horses do well on it. My horse has done well on traditional sweet feed, locally milled pellets, and TC complete. I would guess he would probably look great on Strategy if I chose to feed it to him. His condition often depends more on the quality and amount of forage in his diet. I would guess that if he had not been on TC complete while on poor quality hay (and not enough) that he likely would not have looked as good as he did. My point is there are lots of horses probably do well on it. There are some horses that don’t do well on it, I honestly don’t have a ton of experience about it. I do know my friend had a horse come to her barn who was eating it (about 8-10 pounds of it a day!) no idea what the rest of the diet for the horse was and he looked fine, not outstanding but not bad either. He now eats half of that on the TC complete (and maybe even less) and I would say he looks better. Like I said he didn’t look bad before, he was in good weight decent coat etc, but he is shinier and better looking now.
Not a fixed formula. I’ve seen more horses go off Purina feeds than any other. I don’t like products that claim they’re appropriate for all life stages. I’ve seen horses do fine on it, but I’ve seen the same horses do better on higher quaility feeds.
I kept finding whole corn kernels in the bags. My horses all did well on it but then they do well on anything including no grain at all.
I prefer TC, and do use a Poulin product as well. I leased a horse who looked wonderful on Strategy. There was no point in changing something that worked, and the horse had dapples like the rest of them 
YMMV.
My horse won’t eat it. He was a huge fan at one point, I took him off it during a rehab when I decided he didn’t need the extra stuff and then didn’t want to eat it when I started again. FWIW, he also wouldn’t eat Triple Crown. I now have him on Integrity Senior, milled relatively locally by Star Milling. It is the go-to food when anyone else at the barn has something that their horse won’t eat with their own food.
I’d also like to add some $$ input.
When I brought Swain to my place she was on 2 scoops of Strategy 2wice a day.
(and she was a freakin psycho)
Strategy is what? 12 bucks or so a bag?
I switched her to TC Growth and give her exactly 1/2 the amount.
She gets 2 scoops once a day.
TC Growth is 24 bucks a bag for me.
Therefore, though Strategy may be a cheaper feed, I changed to a much higher quality feed and my $$ out has not increased.
Just thought that was a nice side note as we all try to save a buck here and there.
[QUOTE=MyssMyst;6114527]
Does this apply to the Healthy Edge line as well? Healthy edge has worked great for my horses.[/QUOTE]
I’d like to know too. I feed Strategy Healthy Edge. My mare seems fine, but since I’ve had her such a short time, I have nothing to compare it to.
It applies to ALL Purina products. I can’t even feed Purina to my dog.
[QUOTE=purplnurpl;6115828]
I’d also like to add some $$ input.
When I brought Swain to my place she was on 2 scoops of Strategy 2wice a day.
(and she was a freakin psycho)
Strategy is what? 12 bucks or so a bag?
I switched her to TC Growth and give her exactly 1/2 the amount.
She gets 2 scoops once a day.
TC Growth is 24 bucks a bag for me.
Therefore, though Strategy may be a cheaper feed, I changed to a much higher quality feed and my $$ out has not increased.
Just thought that was a nice side note as we all try to save a buck here and there.[/QUOTE]
It is mind boggling to me the number of people who do not grasp this concept!
When I started managing this new barn, the horses where on a variety of low quality feeds (a locally milled “senior” feed, McCauley’s Alam, and Omolene 200). Now, had it just been left up to me, I would have done a wholesale switch to Pennfield feeds the first week I was here! But, instead, I did the research, talked to the boarders, had the Pennfield rep out, convinced the farm owners we would feed less, there by spend less (they were extremely skeptical, considering the pretty substantial price difference…my spreadsheets were AWESOME. Had the price differences down to the POUND!). There were so many horses here getting 10+ pounds of the senior, and were barely MAINTAINING weight, let alone gaining, like some needed. Most of my hard keepers on Pennfield in the past would get 6 lbs, at the most (there were a few exceptions, but those were usually temporary exceptions).
Well, we made the switch, and we are feeding SO MUCH LESS! I can’t order enough feed each week to avoid a fuel charge. And my 10+lb horses who were skinny? Gaining weight…on LESS feed. 
I do not feed Purina feeds because they are not fixed formula. I have fed them in the past, and had decent results, but I am ALL about Pennfield now. The quality is far and away superior.
My horse is on Strategy now that he’s being boarded. Strategy isn’t my first choice, but I am very happy with my horses hay situation and pretty much everything else about his barn, so I don’t want to be a pesky boarder. My horse seems perfectly fine, but having fed Pennfield in the past, I dream of the day I move back near a Pennfield dealer.
I completely agree…people just don’t make sense. On a similar note, I have an acquaintance whose horses get a small amount of crap food. He could not get past the fact that I was spending $24/bag on a ration balancer, even though it worked out to about the same price per serving, and (get this: !! ) was providing better nutrition. Guess nutrition wasn’t in his vocabulary.
non fixed feed content. I did use it for a while. The horses looked fine but every delivery the bags of feed were a vastly different color in the pellets…so the content was taking wide swings in more than “theory”…they varied from green to brown to orange. I really wondered what they were putting in it when they were orange…
I actually had four out of five horses colic one night after feeding them all a new bag of Strategy. They tested it for me and nothing was ‘wrong’, but that was the ONLY thing different that had happened, plus a couple of them hadn’t wanted to eat it.
That was the end for me.
My TB mare breaks out in hives when fed Strategy Healthy Edge.
[QUOTE=BoyleHeightsKid;6116003]
It applies to ALL Purina products. I can’t even feed Purina to my dog.[/QUOTE]
Only a few of Purina’s horse feeds are fixed formula.
Ultium & the 2 WellSolves - WC & LS
I sent an e-mail to Purina with a couple of questions two days ago, and they haven’t responded :lol: And I’ve been one of their biggest defenders here :lol:
I can speak on Purina’s behalf and answer any questions that you might have but I want to address two things, one is NSC content and the other is fixed formulation. There are a lot of misconceptions out there.
One is NSC. Let’s be clear what a low value for NSC means. I have a feeling that everyone might have a different number. Strategy is considered a lower starch diet. Strategy GX Professional formula is an average of 18% starch (24% NSC) and Strategy Healthy Edge is an average of 12% starch (17% NSC). Those are great numbers, especially for the average adult horse. Now, if you have a special needs horse or a horse with sensitivities that requires less then that, then there are other options in the Purina line to provide your horse with an even lower starch alternative.
Fixed Formula - The concept is understandable, let’s keep things consistent for our horses because they have a sensitive digestive system. But, how consistent nutritionally is a product that has a set recipe? I think most of you would agree with me that hay can vary vastly depending on the type of hay and the field it was grown in. But, even hay grown in the same field can vary from cutting to cutting and areas of the field that are lower lying etc. So not all hays, even if the same type and quality, are created equally and can vary in nutritional content and/or digestibility. Well, if you think about it, feed ingredients are the same way. Every load of ingredients that comes into Purina is tested for quality, but even among the quality grains there can still be variances. You can have a high quality load of oats that meets all standards for quality, digestibility, content and visual inspection but may test out at 11% protein and next week get a load that meets all the same criteria and tests out at 13% protein. Now, a company that uses a set recipe will typically use a book value for oats and assume that oats on average is 11.5% protein and that is how they come up with their formulations so now you can see the issue. If you utilize book values to make your formulations and keep those formulations 100% fixed all the time then your nutritional content could vary immensely from bag to bag. Keep in mind that the guarantees on the tag are typically minimums or maximums not exacts, but Purina’s goal is to keep as close to those numbers as possible by using Constant Nutrition Formulation. To accomplish this bin bottom samples of the ingredients are taken (because even within a load nutrition can vary) on a daily basis so that formulations are made with the knowledge of the nutritional content of the actual ingredients used.
*****The next point I am going to make is extremely important. This DOES NOT mean that Purina swaps ingredients in and out and just puts whatever they want in their horse feeds. Every horse feed has an ingredient list and set parameters for how much of that ingredient is to be included and the amount it can vary is small. For example (and this is purely an example, not based on any real feeds):
ABC horse feed Fixed Formula:
2 ton oats
1 ton soybean meal
1/2 ton corn
1/2 ton vit/min mix
vs.
ABC Constant Nutrition Formulation:
2 ton oats +/- 10%
1 ton soybean meal +/- 10%
1/2 ton corn +/- 5%
1/2 ton vit/min mix
The only difference between the two is that the second formula can vary slightly based on the nutritional content of the actual ingredients used. So, for example, if the oats were a little higher in protein at 13% then maybe the inclusion rate of soybean meal would be dropped slightly to accommodate for that. Whereas in the first formula there would be no accommodation and the product would just be higher in protein then what the bag says.
Last point, for now, Purina spends way too much time, money, energy & effort into research to wittle it all away by paying no attention to the ingredients that make up their products. The products are consistent and if they vary, it is ever so slight to keep the nutrition consistent in order to insure that your horse is getting what it needs. The research farm is awesome (if you ever get the chance to visit, please do) and you would be astounded at the amount of attention and detail goes into every product that they produce before it comes out. Some products take several years of research before they ever make it out to the stores and in your farms.
I could go on, but I think I have said enough for now. I realize that there are still people out there that won’t like Purina or had a bad experience, but there are even more out there that love it. I just wanted to make sure that everyone got a better understanding of how & why they formulate the way they do.
FYI - I was an equine specialist in the field for Purina for 12 years before becoming a stay at home mom and periodically I still do a little consulting work for them so I stay up to date on what is going on if you have any further questions.
Thanks for listening!
They took almost a week to respond to me when I asked about the hives. They told me that hives are almost never caused by food (in other words, not their fault) and suggested several Purina supplements that I should give my horse. Kept the horse off all grain and supplements for over a month. Gave her the Strategy Healthy Edge, hives came back. Seems to me it IS the grain causing the hives.
Murphy seemed to be doing well on 1 lb/day (gained some much needed weight) but he did have a gas colic while he was on the grain. He was my second horse to colic that week but the other horse (a WB) was not on any grain so I don’t know if the Strategy had anything to do with it or not.
I have always been extremely satisfied with Purina products. It did wonders for an emaciated 21 year old TB Brood mare i rescued and I have raised most of my horses on the Omolene line. In my lifetime of horse ownership I have never had a horse of mine not eat their grain or have any reaction to stuff in feeds. I had one gelding with hives and that was due to leaves eaten off a tree overhanging in his pasture.
If you don’t choose to use Purina then don’t, but it isn’t right to knock them down or call their products inferior.
[QUOTE=Holly F;6121936]
I can speak on Purina’s behalf and answer any questions that you might have but I want to address two things, one is NSC content and the other is fixed formulation. There are a lot of misconceptions out there.
One is NSC. Let’s be clear what a low value for NSC means. I have a feeling that everyone might have a different number. Strategy is considered a lower starch diet. Strategy GX Professional formula is an average of 18% starch (24% NSC) and Strategy Healthy Edge is an average of 12% starch (17% NSC). Those are great numbers, especially for the average adult horse. Now, if you have a special needs horse or a horse with sensitivities that requires less then that, then there are other options in the Purina line to provide your horse with an even lower starch alternative.
Fixed Formula - The concept is understandable, let’s keep things consistent for our horses because they have a sensitive digestive system. But, how consistent nutritionally is a product that has a set recipe? I think most of you would agree with me that hay can vary vastly depending on the type of hay and the field it was grown in. But, even hay grown in the same field can vary from cutting to cutting and areas of the field that are lower lying etc. So not all hays, even if the same type and quality, are created equally and can vary in nutritional content and/or digestibility. Well, if you think about it, feed ingredients are the same way. Every load of ingredients that comes into Purina is tested for quality, but even among the quality grains there can still be variances. You can have a high quality load of oats that meets all standards for quality, digestibility, content and visual inspection but may test out at 11% protein and next week get a load that meets all the same criteria and tests out at 13% protein. Now, a company that uses a set recipe will typically use a book value for oats and assume that oats on average is 11.5% protein and that is how they come up with their formulations so now you can see the issue. If you utilize book values to make your formulations and keep those formulations 100% fixed all the time then your nutritional content could vary immensely from bag to bag. Keep in mind that the guarantees on the tag are typically minimums or maximums not exacts, but Purina’s goal is to keep as close to those numbers as possible by using Constant Nutrition Formulation. To accomplish this bin bottom samples of the ingredients are taken (because even within a load nutrition can vary) on a daily basis so that formulations are made with the knowledge of the nutritional content of the actual ingredients used.
*****The next point I am going to make is extremely important. This DOES NOT mean that Purina swaps ingredients in and out and just puts whatever they want in their horse feeds. Every horse feed has an ingredient list and set parameters for how much of that ingredient is to be included and the amount it can vary is small. For example (and this is purely an example, not based on any real feeds):
ABC horse feed Fixed Formula:
2 ton oats
1 ton soybean meal
1/2 ton corn
1/2 ton vit/min mix
vs.
ABC Constant Nutrition Formulation:
2 ton oats +/- 10%
1 ton soybean meal +/- 10%
1/2 ton corn +/- 5%
1/2 ton vit/min mix
The only difference between the two is that the second formula can vary slightly based on the nutritional content of the actual ingredients used. So, for example, if the oats were a little higher in protein at 13% then maybe the inclusion rate of soybean meal would be dropped slightly to accommodate for that. Whereas in the first formula there would be no accommodation and the product would just be higher in protein then what the bag says.
Last point, for now, Purina spends way too much time, money, energy & effort into research to wittle it all away by paying no attention to the ingredients that make up their products. The products are consistent and if they vary, it is ever so slight to keep the nutrition consistent in order to insure that your horse is getting what it needs. The research farm is awesome (if you ever get the chance to visit, please do) and you would be astounded at the amount of attention and detail goes into every product that they produce before it comes out. Some products take several years of research before they ever make it out to the stores and in your farms.
I could go on, but I think I have said enough for now. I realize that there are still people out there that won’t like Purina or had a bad experience, but there are even more out there that love it. I just wanted to make sure that everyone got a better understanding of how & why they formulate the way they do.
FYI - I was an equine specialist in the field for Purina for 12 years before becoming a stay at home mom and periodically I still do a little consulting work for them so I stay up to date on what is going on if you have any further questions.
Thanks for listening![/QUOTE]
Thank you very much for your imput! It’s quite helpful!
Hope everyone that responded to this post, reads this! 
I just feel like for the high price of Strategy there are much better options out there.
Part of the equation is asking what is best for your situation, your budget, and your individual horse(s). For me, Strategy just doesn’t meet those criteria.
