On the one hand, I understand why my new barn owner feeds it to his horses because obviously it helps give them more energy for the tasks ahead, but Walker is coming off a two month sickness and still getting no work. Once he starts work, he will be working only lightly. I've become wildly paranoid about anything that could so much as make my horse feel off, especially after our recent hiatus and HYPP scare.
On the other hand, my new barn owner has also offered fat and fibre for a slight increase in the board price. As I'm sure you can imagine, for a horse that is bred to be heavyset, I'm slightly worried he'll end up the size of an elephant. If I were returning us to the Western world, especially as a halter horse, this would be perfect since, frankly, fat horses win halter competitions. But alas, Walker is going to be a jumper (*enter hilarious vision of fat pony jumping here*), and I'm seriously not against buying him his own grain to best maximize his performance based on a number of factors (breed, purpose, etc).
So this brings me to the question portion of this post: What feed do you give your horses (brand and type please so I can research and compare) and why?
Purina has a ration balancer (two, actually... one is "meant" for mares w/ foals but the only difference is the higher protein. I used the "mares w/ foals" one for that reason). Equilizer is the regular one and Optimal is the higher protein one. I chose a ration balancer for Mexi because it made sure she got all her essential nutrients without the added crap that sometimes comes in complete feeds. Depending on the quality of hay she was getting, I would supplement this with straight oats or things like soy beans to add fat.
ReplyDeleteThe feeding instructions on this can be a little difficult to understand so let me know if you have any questions.
http://www.agripurina.ca/eq/en/horse-feeds/supplements-treats/index.jsp
Thanks. I'll check it out. I'm going to keep Walker on fat and fibre for the meantime since he likes it and he needs weight, but then I need to explore some other options. I don't think I want him on sweet feed, and the more I think about the performance pellets he was on at the last barn, the more I debate whether I like them either. Sow now is my chance to find something I actually like!
DeleteWhen I started out I had Carlos on a Senior Feed, then once he was working a lot more I switched him to Purina Ultium. Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteThat looks pretty good too. I definitely want something for high performance, although Walker won't be that high performance for awhile again. Obviously Senior Feed doesn't apply. Too bad Purina didn't make an "8-year old Quarter Horse with a love of apples" feed.
DeleteJust FYI, if you don't see the feed on that Purina Agribrands site I posted, we don't have it in Canada. I didn't see the Ultium there but I just skimmed.
DeleteYeah. I noticed that too.
DeleteWe do a custom pellet blend that is high in protein, but I'm not super knowledgeable about feed so I don't know much more than that.
ReplyDelete