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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 795
  
Location: GODS country | How many people are NO longer feeding their horses grain (ex: strategy, safechoice -- COB, oats)? But simply alfalfa (pellets/cubes), rice bran, beet pulp and vit/mineral?
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 330
| Me.
They get a ration balancer for their vitamins and minerals, and if that isn't enough calories with free choice hay (winter) or 24/7 grass pasture (summer), I add alfalfa pellets. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 164
| The healthiest thing for a horse is forage. The grain is there to give vitamins and minerals. If you can get a straight up supplement to cover that, then I would go off grain. My feeding program is grass and alfalfa am pm, I give more or less of each depending on their weight and workout schedules. They get a local sweet feed which I put a scoop of Platinum on 2x/day. The sweet feed is there to put the supplement on and just as a treat. They get about 2 handfuls for the supplement to go on top of. You could also just get a generic pelleted feed and soak it for the powdered supplement, but I see it kind of as a treat. The small amount isn't going to hurt them. Or you can also get pelleted supplement from some of the other brands. I have seen great results over the last 6 months of changing my routine to this. I was doing 1 flake grass and 1/2 flake alfalfa and 3/4 scoop grain in the am and 1 flake grass and 3/4 grain in the pm. They just didn't look great. Healthy weight but not healthy looking overall. Now it's 1 flake grass 1/2 flake alfalfa, couple handfuls of the same grain and a scoop of platinum. I do this same thing both times a day. They look amazing. |
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Rad Dork
Posts: 5218
Location: Oklahoma | I am feeding Renew Gold and my gelding looks amazing. I soak Alfalfa/Timothy cubes OR Alfalfa pellets to feed him his THE scoop and I just mix his Biotin supplement in with the RG since it's also in pelleted form. I've only been doing it for about three weeks, but I am so far impressed! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 621
Location: Arkansas | Me. My barrel horses get alfalfa pellets with about a cup full of rice bran to add in their supplements and pasture grass in the summer while my pasture pets which are occasionally used for trail riding get just pasture grass. Then in winter time they all get hay, pasture pickings & beet pulp, but my barrel horses also still get their alfalfa pellets rice bran and supplements added in. Everybody is fat and happy! |
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 Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
Location: Oklahoma | I feed free choice bermuda round bales. In the am my guys get 1 scoop timothy pellets. In the evening they get 1 scoop Safe Choice original with Adeptus Augment. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 795
Location: GODS country | moorehorses - 2014-09-09 2:53 PM
Me. My barrel horses get alfalfa pellets with about a cup full of rice bran to add in their supplements and pasture grass in the summer while my pasture pets which are occasionally used for trail riding get just pasture grass. Then in winter time they all get hay, pasture pickings & beet pulp, but my barrel horses also still get their alfalfa pellets rice bran and supplements added in. Everybody is fat and happy!
Do you have a vitamin/mineral? |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| No grain for 4 years. My feed programmed evolved to no grain from dealing with colic and ulcers. I feed molasses free beet pulp- 1 cup in the summer, more in the winter for calories,renew gold for fat, 707 essential vitamin and minerals, alfalfa for protein, horses have 80 acres to graze. Mine look good and feel good.
Edited by rodeomom3 2014-09-09 3:15 PM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 795
Location: GODS country | rodeomom3 - 2014-09-09 3:02 PM
No grain for 4 years. My feed programmed evolved to no grain from dealing with colic and ulcers. I feed molasses free beet pulp- 1 cup in the summer, more in the winter for calories,renew gold for fat, 707 essential vitamin and minerals, alfalfa for protein, horses have 80 acres to graze. Mine look food and feel good.
I sure wish I could get Renew Gold! My options are Max-E-Glo, Empower Boost or Healthy/MooreGlo by ADM.
Do you soak your beet pulp? |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 621
Location: Arkansas | Not a vitamin/mineral as i believe they get most of that from the fertilized grass they eat. I give my barrel horses a special blend of T.H.E. Muscle Mass, human grade organic sulfur & Animed's Remission. They also have a salt block. I have a 13 yr. old 1D mare @ big shows & a 6 yr. old mare that just started running 3D times and they are both in great shape. Even in this heat they don't lack for energy and aren't sweating bad and panting like most horses i see.
I cannot say enough great things about T.H.E. Muscle Mass, if it were the only supplement i could feed, i would. 
Edited by moorehorses 2014-09-09 3:17 PM
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | If I had it my way, I would not feed grain.
It is better for the horse to eat mostly forage with vitamins and minerals supplemented as needed. Ideally, you should test your pastures and your hay to see what they are getting and compare that to what they require for nutrition… and then supplement based off that.
However, it can be time consuming and those levels change a lot especially during the time of year. If I was at home with my horses and had enough pasture for them to live off, I would be all over it. But I am at school and depend on my mom and sister to feed and ride my horses…we have enough pasture for them to move around and graze on, but not enough for them to really live off so we still feed a complete feed and then give hay and pasture in addition. One day when I'm out of school and have my own place, I will hopefully have it set up to where they can live off the grass and get supplementation with vitamins and minerals. |
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Veteran
Posts: 147
| I feed beet pulp, alfalfa pellets, a diet balancer and a fat supplement. |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| I feed alfalfa/oat hay cubes, alfalfa pellets, Renew Gold, Grostrong bit/mineral supplement and AE. They look and feel great. We are still in a bad drought here in S. Texas so our hay is less than stellar. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 302
Location: TX | ME!!!
After my old guy had colic surgery a year and a half ago, my opinion about grain changed.. I had him on SafeChoice. (not that I blame the grain for his surgery, but it left a bad taste in my mouth). After the surgery, the vets had me keep him on a coastal and alfalfa diet for a long time... so I just stuck with that. So mine only get alfalfa, pasture grass and now I am feeding Renew Gold along with GroStrong Minerals, a joint supplement, etc... And man I LOVE IT! My horses look and feel wonderful.. My old guy is 15 and he acts like he feels better now than he ever has. I also have my 5 year old on it and she does great on it too. It doesn't make her hot. I won't be going back to grain unless there is an absolute need for it.. |
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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | I feed beet pulp, alfalfa pellets and Horse Guard multivitamin and then grass hay. They don't really have a lot of pasture (two of them live on dry lots) but they all still look good. Shiny, no ribs, good topline, etc. |
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 Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| Id like to get away from grain too. I do have access to renew gold and have toyed with the idea of switching. I feed beet pulp already. I could get alfalfa pellets if needed or oats. I also feed THE muscle mass and forco. They have no pasture so they get fed coastal twice a day. Im wondering if I went the renew gold route if id need to add a vitamin /mineral to what im already feeding. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 268
| Mine are easy keepers, so I just feed quality hay - and literally 1 cup of strategy per day just to mix in their glucosamines and vitamin/mineral supplement. |
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Location: on a hill | I only feed barley, beetpulp & platinum to my 1 horse but he's a hard keeper. The rest are all on pasture and empower balance. Been feeding this way for a few years. When i did feed grain it was very little. I always fed more hay than most people around here do. I dont belive they really need grain. There are exceptions to that though. |
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 Winner winner chicken dinner
Posts: 2047
Location: California | Rye grass am, Alfalfa + Renew Gold pm. My horse looks and feels great! |
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Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
Location: North Dakota | Two of my three don't get grain. One horse is on straight up grass, out 24/7. One gets alfalfa pellets with a vitamin supplement, garlic, and hoof/joint supplements plus a round bale in his pen. I went with the Alfalfa pellets b/c that's what he was on when I bought him, and I decided not to fix what wasn't broken. Plus they're cheap. He's fat, happy, and in good health. I don't plan on giving him grain ever. |
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