PN feeds

[kyeadon]

I switched all of my minis and ponies to progressive alfalfa diet balancer several months ago. We have very good hay, they are dewormed monthly, up to date on everything else and otherwise very healthy. After about a month I began to notice some of them going down in weight. I added Progressive's envision classic (fat) for those who I thought needed it. I am still not happy with the way they look. Some of my ponies have lost weight (they were just right to begin with, in my opinion) and I am looking at hay bellies on some of my minis! I am wondering what others think of this feed. We are also facing a most certain move in the very near future so I am considering gradually switching everyone over to a complete feed before the move in order to keep a consistant diet after the move. Not knowing what quality of hay will be available, as we will be moving to a state that has suffered drought, I am looking at purina or kent feed. Any comments on these feeds? Suggestions? -

I should add that all but the broodmares are exercised regularly. The broodmares come in and out as they please and get led around by my smaller children regularly. No "organized" exercise plan, but they are "played with", as I call it, almost daily. (such patient, sweet little girls they are!)

 

[Becky]

I feed all of my horses Progressive Nutrition products and I absolutely love them!

The majority of my horses are on the Alfalfa Balancer and most are on the verge of being too fat. I'm suprised you are having trouble keeping weight on them with that formula. My breeding herd gets their balancer and 12 - 24 ounces of alfalfa pellets twice a day per horse. Grass hay once a day and these horses are dry lotted.

I do know that the Grass Balancer formula requires more calories with some horses to keep or maintain their weight in the form of oats or added fat, but I've never had that problem with the alfalfa balancer. Depending on the grass hay I buy, makes some difference in the weight of my horses but I can adjust their weight up or down with alfalfa pellets most of the time.

I am completely sold on the Progressive Nutrition products!

How much do your horses weigh and how much (weight wise) alfalfa are you feeding them?

 

[kyeadon]

How much do your horses weigh and how much (weight wise) alfalfa are you feeding them?

I feed everyone 2 percent of body weight in hay daily, in many feedings. I weight all hay and feed They have access to free choice salt and minerals, and fresh water (now in heated buckets) always. Only my larger shetland ponies finish the hay.

 

[chandab]

I've been feeding Progressive products for over 18 months now (except for 6 weeks or so when I lost my supplier, now I buy direct from the area rep, he even delivers). I haven't been happier with the way my horses look (my senior half-Arab gelding hasn't looked this good in 10 years). I've been feeding the grass balancer and grass hay, but recently added the Lo-carb which looks very similar to the Platform mini feed (due to drought conditions, we have limited quality hay this year, so I decided to add some quality fiber to their diet; the Lo-carb has alfalfa and beet pulp in it). All of my horses hold their weight just fine on this diet, maybe even a bit too well.

 

[Jag and Inti's Mom]

I feed progressive nutrition grass balancer and just love it. I have four minis. In the winter I do increase their hay, for warmth, but I think they look just great. They have slimmed down, but they are very fit. I also add about 1/4 cup of hulled sunflower seeds to their feed every day. I feed Timothy hay. I do not see hay bellies, they are worked about 4-5 times a week.

 

[kyeadon]

UGHH! I must be doing something wrong here! Maybe I will have another hay analysis done.

 

[chandab]

UGHH! I must be doing something wrong here! Maybe I will have another hay analysis done.

What kind of hay are you feeding? With the alfalfa balancer, I'm assuming alfalfa, but we all know what happens when we assume.

The "Grass balancer" is designed to be fed with forage consisting of mostly grass hay or pasture (alfalfa making up 40% or less of the total forage - the bag says 8# or less for 1000# horse, so that's roughly 40% of the hay intake).

The "Alfalfa balancer" is designed to be fed with alfalfa (I don't have a tag, so don't know more details).

 

[kyeadon]

What kind of hay are you feeding? With the alfalfa balancer, I'm assuming alfalfa, but we all know what happens when we assume.

Yes, we are feeding alfalfa. I had the PN guy out to look at and recommend axactly the right product and amounts for all the minis and ponies. I have followed his advice. What to do?!

 

[chandab]

What kind of hay are you feeding? With the alfalfa balancer, I'm assuming alfalfa, but we all know what happens when we assume.

Yes, we are feeding alfalfa. I had the PN guy out to look at and recommend axactly the right product and amounts for all the minis and ponies. I have followed his advice. What to do?!

I have a feed chart for small ponies and minis from Progressive, if you want it PM me with your e-mail address and I'll send it to you. The amounts to feed minis aren't exactly scaled down versions of full-size amounts, especially for youngsters. My area sales rep hadn't even heard of the chart, so perhaps your rep didn't know either. [i got the chart from a friend who used to work for Progressive, she got it from the head guy at Progressive.]

 

[kyeadon]

Thank you for the offer! I do have the chart. I also keep a PN growth chart up to date on all my babies.

 

[ThreeCFarm]

I'm another HUGE fan of PN!!! I feed the grass balancer, oats, Envision for those who need it, and grass hay. Unfortunately, the drought has lowered the quality of the hay we have around here, so I've had to increase the Envision I feed to compensate. I don't like to feed a high volume of concentrates, so I like the Envision as 1 lb of Envision equals the calories in 3 lbs of oats. No hay bellies on my property, not even the weanlings!

Could you be undersetimating the weights of your horses, thereby underfeeding the balancer? That would cause them to be shorted on the nutrients they need.

Is it the young, growing horses that have the bellies? And do their spines also stick up?

 

[Becky]

Here are a couple of weanling fillies of mine that are on Progressive products. They are both fed 12 ounces of alfalfa pellets twice a day, 6-7 ozs of Alfalfa Balancer twice a day, around 2 ozs of beet pulp twice a day and they are being weaned off of the Progressive Foal Starter and Creep of which they are getting about 2 ounces once a day now. They get a hand full of grass hay once a day.

These pictures were just taken last week and even through the winter coats, you can see they are both well filled out with no bellies. The black pinto filly is Redrock Caribbean Breeze; the chestnut pinto filly is Redrock C Anahita. Breeze is 6 months old and Anahita is 7 months of age.

 

[kyeadon]

I'm another HUGE fan of PN!!! I feed the grass balancer, oats, Envision for those who need it, and grass hay. Unfortunately, the drought has lowered the quality of the hay we have around here, so I've had to increase the Envision I feed to compensate. I don't like to feed a high volume of concentrates, so I like the Envision as 1 lb of Envision equals the calories in 3 lbs of oats. No hay bellies on my property, not even the weanlings!

Could you be undersetimating the weights of your horses, thereby underfeeding the balancer? That would cause them to be shorted on the nutrients they need.

Is it the young, growing horses that have the bellies? And do their spines also stick up?

It is one of the young horses and several of the older horses that have the bellies. I have estimated the weights several different ways, and I have brought one in to the vet to be weighed a few times. My calculations have been accurate (very close). Would you mind sharing with me the amounts you feed of oats and envision per weight of horse? (just as an example) I really DO NOT like to feed concentrates either. I also feel that a horse should "be a horse" - that is why I switched to progressive in the first place.

What, in your opinion, would be the lowest and uppermost amounts of envision to feed, assuming that I do not want to add oats?

Can anyone tell me if they have fed the hi-fat balancer? opinions? comments?

Also, I LOVE your weanlings Becky!

 

[ThreeCFarm]

Have you emailed Progressive? You can ask detailed questions of them, and they will respond.

From what I understand, there is no "upper limit" nor "lower limit" for Envision. You feed what the horse needs to maintain weight. Envision is a fat supplement only, there are no minerals, etc in it, hence the lack of a minimum amount to feed.

As to the oats, I feed the smaller minis up to 1 cup before adding Envision, and the taller ones get 2 cups of oats before I add the Envision. You don't have to do it like that, however. That is just the way I do it to try to keep the concentrates down. That said, I have one filly that doesn't tolerate oats that well, so she gets only the balancer and Envision, and one stallion that doesn't like oats that much, so he gets 1/2 cup of oats and some Envision. My horses have hay in front of them 24/7, and they don't have hay bellies on this diet.

I have some horses that ONLY get the balancer and hay, and others who need the oats and quite a bit of Envision. It all depends on the horse. You feed the balancer so the horses get all of the nutrients they need, and you add oats and/or Envision if the horse needs more calories to maintain their weight.

Please contact Progressive and tell them what you are experiencing and ask for suggestions.

 

[kyeadon]

I will contact Progressive again. Thank you for your help!