Your experiences with Farnam grain

[Tiff]

I have been looking into Farnam's miniature horse & pony grain for my boy but have never used it before, so I thought I'd get your opinions and experiences with Farnam's mini. & pony grain. Thanks!

 

[shalamara minis]

I have had very good luck with it and I do like it. I know some others that don't like it. A lot of people said their horses lost weight on it, thats what I liked it was eaiser to keep our horses looking in show shape. Our problem was getting it. I was having to order 10 bags at a time from our feed store, it has just become eaiser to feed Lite Balance, its just eaiser to get.

 

[The Simple Life Farm]

I was feeding it to my herd. I liked it, but the price just kept going up, then the feed stores wouldn't take their coupons anymore, said Farnam wouldn't send them their $. So we quit using it and went to Safe & Sound, love the results, and about $5 less a bag!!!!!!

 

[Kawgirl]

I had my old gelding on it. He lost weight, but he also lost all of his energy! He went from being a spunky driving horse, to being lethargic and barely able to pull the cart some days. I have him on Strategy now and he is almost back to normal and is maintaining his weight very well. The Platform was about $5 a bag higher than the Strategy, too!

 

[calmolly]

I, too, found my youngsters lost weight on it. They also had big bellies. It was quite shocking how fast they lost the weight, over about 3 weeks. I changed to Safe Choice by Nutrena and they are putting all their condition back on without the belly....(well exercise and sweating is getting rid of them!) My big horses are also slick on it.

 

[Leeana]

I did not like it, in my opinion you have to feed way to much of it to get them to even maintain a weight, if you have a really easy keeper then you may be fine but still so many other better products out there.

The only thing i like about that bag is the pretty pink bag

 

[~Lisa~]

It takes a lot more feed to keep your horse in condition so in the long run so much more expensive and just not worth it to me.

I am actually switching my feed program around a bit and will try going back to safe choice and empower for everyone

 

[Sixstardanes]

We do feed Platform to Saber but its only part of his breakfast.

We feed him 1 1/2 cups of it in the AM.

 

[Tiff]

Thank you all so much, sounds like I'll either look at another type of feed, or I'll just keep him on what he's on now which seems to be working out fine. I had just started looking at it thinking that since it was specially formulated for minis that it might be better, but I think I'll steer clear. Thanks again, you were all a ton of help!!

 

[maestoso]

We found that it worked for some of our horses but not for the young ones or over active ones. And since we don't want a million different grains in the feed room, we chose to switch to other products that were more suitable for all the horses.

 

[HorseMom]

I happen to love it. Jay has never looked so good. He's lost weight and has a fantastic coat. I can understand that it's expensive for those that have larger farms, but I only have 2 horses, so it's not too bad for me. I like being able to give him more food to fill his tummy. Too often with some of the normal horse feeds, he could only get a cup a day. That's just not going to fill him up. And with that little bit he was severely overweight. He hasn't lost his energy since changing his feed, actually he has more since he feels so good.

 

[MindyLee]

I have all my minis on it and I love it! I like it because my minis have never looked so good and healthy as long as I have owned them. I dont grain my minis everyday, but they do get small flake of super green 2nd cutting orchard/mix grass 12 hrs apart and 2 cups of mini horse from Plateform 2 times a week. My horses are so healthy now and not over weight like as I have bought them. It has taken me 5 years to get my fat little stud to NOT look pregnet with triplets and also 2 newer mares who where way over weight from being over grained with 10% sweetfeed and alfalfa pellets. I only have one super skinny stud only because he paces all day all night. He eats hay 3 times a day and gets mare/foal grain 5 times a week to help keep weight on + weight gainer. But once breeding season is over, the pacing stops and he looks like a millon bucks!

I too heard mixed feelings about this grain, and two hate paying the price, thats why I buy all I need when the cupons are out and that way Im good to go for the year. I work at Tractor Supply, and do recommend it to most mini owners, only if they have a overweight mini or if they absolutly have to feed their mini grain while its foundered. Otherwise if they have a skinny rescue mini, I point them to something else then suggust the mini feed once their minis weight is where it needs to be.

 

[mydaddysjag]

I fed it for a short time. I had Midas on it for maybe 3 months when he was a yearling. My horses top line was terrible, he couldnt keep weight on it, his coat looked terrible, and he had no energy. I had to feed A LOT of it, so much that I switched because I felt if I fed him any more concentrate at one meal that I would be risking colic.

I feel that if I can feed less of a grain and still keep the horses at a weight I like, that is better than "filing their tummies". Im from a big horse background, and I was taught that you only feed as much concentrate as you have to in order to keep your horse in shape, and you that over a certain % of concentrate risks colic. I had to feed literally 4 times as much of the miniature feed as I did strategy to Midas as a yearling.

I couldnt imagine only graining on certain days. Seems like it would cause more stress on their digestive systems to feed that way. Maybe Im nuts, but it just seems to make more sense to me to feed less feed everyday that only feed certain days.

Price wasn't an issue for me, it just was not a good product for me.

 

[nbark]

I had mine on it and found she got a big belly and also was lethargic, but blamed that on her thyroid problem. I also didn't like her coat, no shine anymore. I just switched back to Pacer sweet feed and can already see the belly coming down, still waiting for the lethargy and coat to improve. Pacer actually has a little less protein .50% and the price is better because it comes in 50 lb bags for the same price as a 25 of Platform, but I was never a big fan of pelleted feed anyway.

 

[JMS Miniatures]

I have already contacted the person thru PM about this post wanted to post here cause this feed really hit hard for me.

When it first started coming out I loved this feed. Not only for my hard keepers but my easy keepers as well. For that 1st year it was out I say my horses looked amazing. Then for some reason something changed. Price went up I felt like the quality went down, does that make any sense. My hard keepers who did exceptionally well on it were loosing weight fast, especially the broodmares, I had to switch them to the Omolene and looked fine eversince. My easy keepers were still doing ok on it but I realized that slowly my gelding Red just wasn't doing so well. Not only the problem he currently had was a big issue, but his coat wasn't shiny, real nasty to the touch, very dull, we didn't know if his first problem was releated to this or not. It wasn't but turns out he was anemic. We had no clue that it was related to the feed. So I gave him red cell and he started doing better. During the fall he was still on the mini feed but not on the red cell, his coat you can tell was starting to get terrible again, and was lethargic. This was not normal for him, he drives in chariot for crying out loud. I said thats it, lets switch grains, I had a good feeling, and you know what, I switched him over to Omolene 100 and he never looked and acted so good. I think right now I may switch him over to a compelete feed but that feed just wasn't doing anything for him. So I HIGHLY don't recommend feeding this feed to anyone. If it works for you great, I will not take my chances on it.

 

[~Lisa~]

For those who said they like their horses tummies to be full that is why I feed beet pulp one cup of dry pellets equals 6 cups of soaked beet pulp and all my horses get 1 1/2 cups of dry so they get 9 cups on top of their grain and they take a while to eat and have full tummies

 

[HorseMom]

For those who said they like their horses tummies to be full that is why I feed beet pulp one cup of dry pellets equals 6 cups of soaked beet pulp and all my horses get 1 1/2 cups of dry so they get 9 cups on top of their grain and they take a while to eat and have full tummies

I've always associated beet pulp with weight gain. We've only ever used it to put weight on our horses. A lot of people seem to use it with their minis. I would be scared to use it with Jay, the boy just has to smell food in the air and he plumps up. That's one of the reasons that I like the Mini feed. He can have more then the measly cup a day to fill him up without adding the extra calories. I've been using it for 2 years and he looks fantastic. His previous owner comments all the time on how great he looks since the feed change. I've heard a lot of people that are unhappy with it, maybe it just depends on the horse.

 

[Alex]

It reall does depend on the horse I have seen the horse Heather is talking abou in person, and yes he does look fantastic. I fed it for a while and at first my horses looked great. Very good weight. But, after a few months my horses had backbones showing, ribs and hips. Not too to bad but noticable. I am now feeding Safechoice, beet pulp, and another fat source and my horses look great. When I fed platform I had to feed a lot of it. I dont remember exact cup amounts but I think it was 7-8 cups? And thats barely anything, i remember someone saying they fed 16 cups and it still didnt look good. So, i did not care for it, but it all depends on the horse.

 

[Robin1]

In two words, HATE IT!!!! I gave it a good try , even had my feed store order it in just for me. My horses not only lost weight, but their energy, and their coats looked terrible. You couldn't pay me to use it.

Robin

 

[Carolyn R]

I used it for awhile, and at first it was okay. The amount that you must feed in order for a mini to get the vitamins and minerals they need is HUGE. It is formulated with alot of filler (quality filler, but filler). I guess the idea is that if you are use to feeding big horses, you can give a mini a big horse serving without over-doing the calories and carbs. I much prefer to feed a ration balancer (born to win which is now Natures essentials enrich 32) and give them more quality hay. Forage is better for them than concentrates. The yearlings and mares in foal are fed a bit differently, but in general my horses get a balancer and good hay (& supplemets as needed).

At $17-$20 a bag for the mini feed, I could get 7-8 bales of timothy/alfalfa/field grass mixed hay, my ration balancer is around $23 a bag, but you don't feed it like the mini feed. Each horse gets about 6oz 2xs a day.

For me, it is not only more economical to feed the way I do, but they look better and act more energetic too.