Almost out of hay, so need some advice on feeding pellets. . . Never done it and clueless.  I'd rather ask folks I trust than Google!

My horse may be the exception.... but those were the first thing my horse ever choked on. I didnt ever worry about choke in my previous 30 plus years of owning horses... in fact I've never seen a horse choke until he did that evening on those pellets.. ever since then he has had issues choking I have to be very careful what I feed him. I know plenty of people that feed them without issue though. My personal opinion if you're wanting to supplement your hay I'd look into cubes.. surprisingly my choker doesnt have too much of an issue with cubes, he has in the past but once he learns to slow himself down hes ok with them. I sometimes add hayrite cubes if I cant find alfalfa hay and I was so worried about him choking because those suckers are HARD but he does just fine on them. I use to think I had to soak them but he does fine.. I even tried soaking the pellets once and if they arent soaked enough he will still choke. Hes a royal pain the butt! 

Are you spposed to soak the cubes of any brand? 

All horses in my barn get a half scoop with their grain. We only soak one of the horses pellets the others eat them dry. Super easy to feed and have not had any issues. Don't ever buy the Dumor brand at TSC those pellets are very large in size.

I've been feeding Standlee for years with no issues. If you're looking to supplement your hay, I'd go with the cubes. My 32 year old gets them soaked, and the other two only get a cube here or there as a treat. They get alfalfa pellets every day, and I feed it dry straight out of the bag.

We add them to our older mares grain. Never had a problem. Our mom mares are 25 this year & look great & are very healthy. 

Standlee pellets were also the first time my horse has ever choked and that was just mixing a pound of them in with his regular feed. I've also had issues in the past with finding plastic pellets in my bags, so if I ever do feed them, I check for plastic closely.

I soak both the pellets and cubes....they are very hard. Wish they were....less hard!!

I have had 2 choke on them, when I didn't soak.

The woman we bought our 3 from feeds only cubes ... she said the only time she has ever had horses choke were on pellets. She said she felt they ate to fast on the pellets which led to the choke.  

I feed both cubes and pellets.  Standlee cubes, Durmore cubes and pellets, Bluebonnett pellets and Omnis/Omega cubes from Danco.  The Standlee cubes and Durmore cubes and pellets I soak, the Bluebonnet pellets I don't soak as they are more feed like pellets and the Omnis/Omega cubes I don't soak.  Have not had one choke.  I do not feed the Standlee pellets as they are too hard.  The Durmore cubes come in Alfalfa/Timothy and Alfalfa/Bermuda as do the cubes.  They are not just straight Alfalfa.  Hope that makes sense.  I have hay but they don't eat much of it as they stay "fat" on the Omnis/Omega cubes.  

I won't feed cubes or pellets without being fully soaked, opens the risk of choke up significantly the dryer they are. I prefer Standlee over any brand. If you're going to start feeding them introduce it before you're out of hay. Switching hay types does the same thing switching grain does, gotta mix them. Half my colic at boarding stables has been from hay switches without being mixed first. Whichever you pick add gradually. The one I feed the pellets to gets one 3qt scoop a day of alfalfa pellets, split into 2 feedings. He still eats close to 15lbs of regular hay on top of that. Around a gallon of water on each serving is what I do. They're soft but not liquidy like oatmeal. Hot water will fully soak them in a matter of a couple minutes, I highly recommnd that. We have a bathroom I can get hot water from. Cuts soaking time down like 80% and by the time you give it the tempature has cooled to a nice warm. Really nice in the winter.  Mine eats them quietly, he doesn't shove as much in his mouth as he can. Even when he wears his cribbing collar I've not had hom choke yet. Knock on wood. But have had several others with choke incicents, luckily mild, but was from them not being soaked enough. In the past when we had one eating cubes we would soak them in a 5 gallon bucket the whole tim between feedings, just let them sit. That worked fine as well, idk about pellets that way. I feed mine soaked pellets because he gets impacted a lot, and the soaking adds wmositure to his system and so far has eliminated my usual 5-10 colics per year with him. (again, knock on wood) 

I feed these. I feed in a huge ground level tub so the csnt gulp them and choke. Been feeding them for years this way.

I have fed pellets and cubes both and ALWAYS soak them both. Mine don't get much food as they are all easy keepers, so they aren't very accustomed to eating much that isn't grass or hay. They get a bit of Enrich or Renew Gold, but not any where near the amount of pellets/cubes I give when I give them, so I always soak them. Each morning/night - I fill up a feed bucket about 1/3 way with pellets or cubes (right now cubes, because I'm supplementing for the winter) and then fill to the brim with water. They soak over night or through the day til the evening feeding so I don't ever rush and feed them before they are soft enough. I want them to be near about MUSH to be sure they aren't going to choke.

I'm embarrassed to say this cause I'm probably The Only person on here. . . But our horses have never had alfalfa!  So I got the timothy pellets.  And I'm scared to feed them!!   But we only have 7 more bales so I'm not sure what to do.   They all get feed, rice bran, beet pulp, CJ, and Forco.  Oh the mess when hay situations run amuck. . . . 

Do you have access to any cubes? 

Some tell you that you don't have to wet or soak them down, but as like another, I had a horse choke and I will NEVER feed pellets or cubes of hay without spraying them down and letting them break up before feeding.  Omnis cubes are good, and while they are soft, I literally sprayed enough water on them to almost cover them and they soaked it up so fast, like literally a min and fed... horses loved it...  

Dont be embarrassed!  I know I was also told if you fed these on the ground level, like out of a tub, they were less apt to choke, something to do with that being the natural graze position... but I use feeders hung on a wall

Only alfalfa. . . . 

I have had horses choke on Standlee pellets but HiPro makes a much smaller alfalfa only pellet that’s like the size of normal horse feed and that one is much safer without soaking I’ve found. (Not the Alfa pro but the plain alfalfa pellets) I also feed hayrite cubes and I love those but I have one older horse who needs them wet down not necessarily soaked but I’ll put water over them in a feed pan and he picks them out of the water and chews them fine. The rest of my herd gets them dry and eats them fine. 

I think you would pleasantly surprised how well your horses would do on alfalfa cubes . 

Bear with me please because I'm DUMB about pellets/cubes/alfalfa!  Would I just S L O W L Y start on the cubes with their feed?  And is it pound for pound hay replacement?   Lord I wish our grass would double time it. . . 

Well when I first started adding cubes ... I just poured them about a half bucket full .. they didnt eat it all at once ... I kinda suspected they got tired of chewing them but eventually they cleaned them up.. it took them a few hours. I'd just start it slow, like when you add a new feed. In my opinion,  the cubes make them eat slower. I'm not a weigher, I just kinda feed on what they look like when it comes to forage ... some get a little more than others ... but I do know cubes are considered "long stem forage " and alfalfa packs more punch nutritionally ... 

Thanks so much--I think I'm gonna take the pellets back for cubes.  And will wet them .  We have 5 horses so not sure how that's gonna work, but we shall figure it out!  Appreciate your help and everyone else's advice too

My old mentor and trainer back in California, she is still training hunter jumpers and owns a pretty predominant training operation.. The only thing she has them feeding a barn full of very expensive,  LARGE  warmbloonds is alfalfa cubes... that's it... nothing else .. the boys scoop it up by the huge shovel full into a large cart and feed those talented monsters 3x a day like that. I often consider doing just that! I can't say if it's more cost effective or not but theres definitely no waste going on lol! Good luck with the cubes let us know how it goes! 

Another thing I noticed when I feed cubes is my horses definitely drink a lot more water, I have 1 in particular that isnt a good drinker in the stall, he will barely touch his water but when he eats cubes he will drink more than half his bucket of water. That's a good thing! Especially when it's so cold out. I notice they drink more on the cubes than alfalfa hay as well. I'm very obnoxiously observant when it comes to my boys

We're also running short of hay and I just upped the amount of Purina Equine Senior to our 26-year-old.  It's very moist and he loves it.  So do our dogs when he drops some on the ground, the little scavengers.

To add, it's very important that no matter what kind of pellets or cubes you feed, check the dates on the sacks.  I'm very picky about that and refuse anything older than a month.