Commercial feed product?

[chandab]

Does anyone know of any commercially available horse feeds that are made with "original" ingredients? I'm looking for feeds that would use alfalfa, oats, barley, flax, and I can tolerate beet pulp.

Seems like most if not all feeds contain "second-hand" ingredients such as distillers dried grains, wheat middlings, rice bran, soybean hulls; ingredients that are left-overs from another product manufacturing. Or, generic ingredients such as grain products, grain by-products, forage products, etc.

I know of one, somewhat regional, brand; I used to use it, til it became unavailable locally. I could still get it if I ordered and shipped in a whole pallet; but a ton of feed is a lot to go through for one little horse (I mostly used their senior product for my senior stallion).

 

[Mona]

Chanda, what are you using the feed for? Are you looking for that mixture, all together in one complete feed? Are you needing it as a weight gain or just something to add meds to or ??

 

[Mona]

What about something like this? http://www.organic-horse-feed.com/?page_id=749

or this http://thrivefeed.com/ingredients-quality-is-key/

 

[chandab]

The Genesis looks pretty good.

Mostly need to provide what my hay lacks, which is protein (lysine in particular) and some vit/min. I've tried to go just hay and vit/min supplement, but their toplines went to heck. I'm feeding a commercial pellet now and it's working ok, but it's made up of by-products, it would be nice to use straight up ingredients that aren't left-overs.

 

[Minimor]

That's why I prefer whole grains--oats or oats/barley. Those grains have always been my "staple"--can't go wrong with oats, good hay and a vitamin/mineral supplement. I use pelleted feed only when I need a little something extra for a potty weanling or if I get a thin one in. I am pretty sure Masterfeeds has at least one pellet that has an alfalfa base but I don't remember which one it is nor what other ingredients were with it.

I suspect I could get the same results by adding brewers yeast to my oats but frankly the pellets are easier. I don't have time to be mixing things, especially mornings before work--and I have one horse who is very picky about grain. Mostly he refuses to eat plain oats, and he dislikes most pellets. I have to combine his oats with a particular pellet and then he will eat it. oddest horse we have ever had!!

 

[chandab]

That's why I prefer whole grains--oats or oats/barley. Those grains have always been my "staple"--can't go wrong with oats, good hay and a vitamin/mineral supplement. I use pelleted feed only when I need a little something extra for a potty weanling or if I get a thin one in. I am pretty sure Masterfeeds has at least one pellet that has an alfalfa base but I don't remember which one it is nor what other ingredients were with it.

I suspect I could get the same results by adding brewers yeast to my oats but frankly the pellets are easier. I don't have time to be mixing things, especially mornings before work--and I have one horse who is very picky about grain. Mostly he refuses to eat plain oats, and he dislikes most pellets. I have to combine his oats with a particular pellet and then he will eat it. oddest horse we have ever had!!

I want the convenience of a bagged feed, but with the ingredients I want. Until it became unavailable locally, I fed my senior stallion a senior feed that the first 5 ingredients were: alfalfa, beet pulp, oats, barley, and soybean meal. Can't seem to find anything like that locally or really nationally either, as most feeds now use by-products (hulls, brans, midds, etc). [Oh, and my stallion looked great on that senior, the senior I can get now, he doesn't look as good to me.]

 

[paintponylvr]

When I was in Shelby, MT, we got a local mill feed that had oats, corn, barley and bran (? maybe not - it was called either COB or COBB) in it. It appeared to be good quality feeds and our horses and ponies stayed round on it with alfalfa/mix hay and CRP pasture. We then added Mare Plus to the pregnant mares' feed. I don't remember using any other vitamins - but I was only there w/ ponies from June 1995 thru April 1997 before moving down here. NC and feeds for the ponies - DIFFERENT STORY...

Have you checked to see if your local feed mill can do something like that?

 

[Magic Marker Minis]

We've tried different grains and our horses never looked good. We found and put some of our horses on Purina Miniature Horse and Pony feed. We have two mares that lacked weight and energy. Also have a senior gelding that lost weight. We live in AZ and feed alfalfa or alfalfa/grass cross. The three have been on the feed for a month. The gelding two months. They have gained weight and are running around and playing. We even have our yearlings and broodmares on it. They are doing good and the two week old baby is even trying it out. I know it has some things you don't want but (like rice bran) but its worth a try.

 

[chandab]

Have you checked to see if your local feed mill can do something like that?

Ha ha ha, I almost fell off my seat... There is no local feed mill, just an elevator (pretty much just works with wheat) that sells a limited selection of commercial feed and a vet that sells limited selection of Nutrena.

 

[chandab]

We've tried different grains and our horses never looked good. We found and put some of our horses on Purina Miniature Horse and Pony feed. We have two mares that lacked weight and energy. Also have a senior gelding that lost weight. We live in AZ and feed alfalfa or alfalfa/grass cross. The three have been on the feed for a month. The gelding two months. They have gained weight and are running around and playing. We even have our yearlings and broodmares on it. They are doing good and the two week old baby is even trying it out. I know it has some things you don't want but (like rice bran) but its worth a try.

Purina isn't available locally, and the closest place (a couple hundred miles) doesn't have the mini feed.

 

[paintponylvr]

Well, darn!

 

[chandab]

Well, darn!

I can hardly find the "ingredients" to make my own mix. WP elevator has alfalfa pellets and oats, vet has beet pulp pellets, anything else would have to be special ordered, if you can get someone to special order for you, they don't seem to like to be put out.

Guess, I'll probably stick to the easy to get commercial pellet and perhaps add alfalfa pellets (or grass pellets) to it, since my girls seem to need a bit more, but don't need the sugar/starch that is often in commercial pellets. [i have one that apparently doesn't care for molasses, cause she won't eat the molasses coated pellet I have in the feed room; but will eat the "plain" pellets.]