I rarely feed pellets at all. We cannot get timothy pellets herenot enough demand for them I guess, and no one will stock themI do buy alfalfa pellets once in awhile; a year ago I was feeding them to several horses that needed extra. My hay last year was very poor and there were a couple mares that lost too much weight, so I started giving them the pellets. Once I got better hay I quit; They were getting 1 lb each of alfalfa pellets, oats and 14% pellets 2x a day. I did also give the pellets to the two pony stallions, but they quit eating them. Gold would just leave his, but Venture would fling them all over the groundhe didnt want them and he didnt want them in his tub! Pelleted grain rationsome of mine will eat it, others will pick the oats out and leave the pellets, and a few will simply leave their grain completely if I add pellets to the oats. SoI dont buy pellets very often.
I would never substitute hay pellets for oats, and in view of the fact that so many of my horses dont care for pelleted feed I would also never use pelleted grain in place of oats. Oats has been my grain of choice for years. Forever in fact! It works well for me and always has, and I see no reason to change that. Mind youMonday when I went to buy oats the elevator didnt have any bagged, so all I could get was a bag of 60-30-10a mix of oats/barley/corn (all rolled/crushed). It is actually a bit lower in protein, fat and fibre than the straight oats. One pony refused it completely, most tried it with suspicion then decided yes, that works and ate it readily, and several said WOW, this is AWESOME. Quite obviously they think it is better than oats! So, I will look at buying some of that mix in place of oats in future.
For treats I use oats or a peppermint (or licorice) horse treat, either Manna Pro or Start to Finish.