In my experience working in veterinary hospitals medically and as a trainer behaviorally with dogs, I learned not to ever trust hype or even recommendation. The most advertised food was some of the worst (causing things like hyper activity, chronic ear infections, etc.) and owners really thought they were buying it to do the right thing for their dog. Worse, the nutrition courses vets took in University were funded by a big name food company, they literally wrote the text book. Not surprisingly, most vets turned around and recommended this food company's product.
I bought a sled dog nutrition book once wanting to arm myself with as much information as I could to make choices for my dogs. A few items caught my attention as contradicting and I researched who the author was. Turns out she was on payroll for another middle-of-the-road big name dog food company that happened to fit her entire book's recommendation perfectly. Sigh.
Then I get back into the crazy world of horses and fall in love with a hot blooded breed that are hard keepers. In regular terms this means that the food that makes horses fat my horses need, unfortunately most of those foods also make my horses insane. I already don't believe marketing after my dog experience so I'm pretty much screwed in this whole horse feed arena.
I have to date fed:
Alfalfa cubes with round bale access and open pasture (very poor weight)
Triple Crown Senior (weight was better, more $$$, Whisper very hot)
Purina Senior (weight was lacking)
Nutrena Senior (weight wasn't great)
Strategy (weight was good, Whisper was hot)
SafeChoice (weight was okay, great when coupled with good pasture/hay)
Tucker Milling 14% (local in Cohutta, some large chunks in bags that looked different, minerals? more $$ than SafeChoice)
Back to SafeChoice
Additions like sunflower seeds, beet pulp, rice bran oil, and timothy pellets have also been tried. I don't believe in using corn oil due to its high Omega 6 content and inflammatory response.
I have been told all sorts of contradictions :
Alfalfa is too rich and your horse will founder.
Beet Pulp is worthless and causes colic
Sweet Feed is low quality, has preservatives, and complicates racehorse ulcers.
Pelleted feeds will choke & poison your horse because levels fluctuate.
Complete feeds are best and provide calories your horse needs.
Complete feeds are unnatural and horses should only eat grass and grass hays.
Corn will make your horse psycho, avoid it all costs.
Never Feed a Thoroughbred concentrate, it will aggravate/cause ulcers.
You must feed a Thoroughbred concentrate or they will look like a skeleton.
Sweet Feed is the only thing most horses will eat.
Sweet Feed is made by Satan and the sugar companies.
Once you get through all that companies are trying to sell you, the labels, and the passion each person has for their feed, it's hard to know where truth lies. I've been feeding SafeChoice for 2 years now with flake mixed grass hay and liked the way my horses acted on it and thought that body condition was pretty good.
Nutrena SafeChoice
-this is one label, the formula does fluctuate with the market, often it has high levels of rice bran
De-hulled Soybean Meal, Wheat Middlings, Distillers Dried Grains, Ground Corn, Soybean Hulls, Alfalfa Meal, Cane Molasses : Vitamins and Minerals
Then came Czech. He had been on Triple Crown Senior to gain weight back from the appalling state he was returned in, and he loved it though he still needed to gain some weight. I mixed it slowly with SafeChoice and he managed to pick around and only eat the senior. He refused to eat it all together when it was the only choice. Add-in the fact that I'd go to buy SafeChoice only to find it out of stock in all surrounding counties, forcing me to buy something else to "get through", and it was time to find a new religion.
I like Triple Crown on paper very much, if I could afford $21 a bag for Complete, I believe that's what my TB's would be on. However, the Senior formula with its $19 tag is very rich for a horse like Bandon. So I began my obsessive horse feed search again to find something that would keep a nice weight on my horses, keep them in their normal mental state, be affordable, and be found at least within 40 miles.
I found a feed that was completely different than what I had been trying, it had a heavier corn content and the protein & fat percentages were different than what I had been feeding but it looked like something I'd like to try. The information I found on it was great, especially the firm formula that does not change as the market for grains changes. It contains more biotin (the hoof supplement I was adding separately is contained in this feed) and Magnesium (found in most calming supplements for horses) than what I had fed before and like SafeChoice it calls itself a "low starch feed" though I understand that's a debatable term these days.
Legends Show & Pleasure
Wheat Middlings, Corn Meal, Soybean Hulls, Distillers Dried Grains, Soybean Oil, Alfalfa Meal, Cane Molasses, Beet Pulp : Vitamins and minerals and amino acids (listed in detail I'm just too lazy to type)
The propaganda reads :
- Organic trace minerals for improvement of skeletal, muscle, reproductive and immune system function.
- Added biotin for greater hoof and hair growth.
- Fixed ingredient formulas for consistent palatability and less colic risk.
- Digestible fiber sources and low levels of sugar and starch for calm behavior and prevention of colic, laminitis and insulin resistance.
- Yeast culture for increased fiber digestion and improved nutrient absorption.
- Elevated fat content for lower feeding rate, increased body condition and improved muscle function.
- Guaranteed amino acid fortification for improved protein quality to maintain and repair active muscle tissue.
- Increased levels of antioxidants for optimal immune system and muscle function.
Once I found a dealer that was willing to carry it for me, we tried it out. We've been through 400 pounds of the feed since then and I'm really happy with it. The horses enjoy eating it, no one is acting any more hot-headed than usual, and body condition is excellent.
The TB's are eating 8 pounds a day each (10 pounds of SafeChoice was needed) and the feed itself costs less a bag than SafeChoice at $16.70. Time will tell, so far it looks like we've got a winner with healthy sane horses who like to eat it, I'm really interested to see what their feet do after 6 months on it.
I hope to have my horse feed religion sorted out permanently, hallelujah.
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