is strategy a good horse feed?

I board and work at a stable who has switched to strategy feed about a year ago. They used to have a grain mix that the owner came up with herself and had the feed mill make/mix it for her. I'm pretty sure it was a combo of oats, corn, pellets, and molasses. The horses were always at a good weight, but they switched because apparently someone who works for purina came by and told the manager that strategy was cheaper and better for your horse. But lately we've had horses lose weight (mostly young ones between 1-3 y/o). Even some of the fat horses that NEVER seem to lose a pound.
The horses are wormed regularly. Some of the horses are boarded, and either their owners never ride them or see them or they are taken on an hour trail once in a great while. We run a trail riding business for people visiting around northwest indiana. The trail horses do at the very most 3-4 trails a day each (only during late spring to early fall), either an hour and 20 minutes or 40 minutes depending on the type of ride. The other horses are spilt between the worker's horses and the owner's horses. The owner only rides one of her horses a few times a week (this is one of really fat ones that mysteriously started losing weight). The rest of her horses consists of Cinder(broodmare), Anelle(1 year), and Neela(3 years). Cinder is actually the mother of the other two. My horses are nice and healthy and don't seem to be affected at all. The only horses having any trouble are Cinder(8 y/o tb, the broodmare), Tuff(18 y/o qh, a newer trail horse, who is rarely used. Came from a family who kept him with no other horses. He's very timid and shy in the paddock), Raja(the manger's horse. A 3 y/o Anglo-Arab gelding who is only ridden on a trail ride once or twice every few weeks), Eagle(9 y/o paint, a wonderful trail horse who can eat tons and still doesn't seem to pack a pound), Rio(12y/o anglo-arab, the owner's baby/riding horse. Although his weight loss may be related to his heaves. He had two coughing attacks in the last few weeks since some dumbbutt fed him moldy hay), Anelle(1 year old Oldenburg), and Neela(3 year old Hanoverian). They have been getting corn oil with their grain for months also, but it's just not helping.
Maybe we should be giving them once a day wormer? The stable is so close to the beach that they live in sand paddocks, and eat off round bales. They come in during bad weather, and get 2 flakes (less or more depending on horse or pony) with their grain at AM & PM. Hay is grass/alfalfa mix. We give them psyllium in their grain once a month for a week because of the sand. And we havn't had a horse colic in years. Just a fyi, there are 30 horses living there.
I just would like to know if I should inform the owner about switching back to the old grain or finding a different grain that is better. Or keep trying to convince her to fence in the 50 acres she bought down the road. :roll:
Sorry if this is too long, but I wanted to make sure I got most if not all of the details out. :)

Startgy is not a "good" feed but there are also alot worse feeds out there...

It is very high grain formula and it also is not a fixed formula which means that they can use whatever is cheapest on any given day to make that feed ..... it also means the nutrition level on it is not the same at any given time....

Why doesn't she look into the Enrich32 and build her own mix around that ...

Peggy Sue is mostly correct, however Strategy is not a "fixed formula" for the sake of maintaining a balanced nutrient profile not so they can use whatever is cheapest on the market. And it's the "non-fixed formula" that allows them to maintain a set nutrient profile rather than having fluctuations from bag to bag.

Just as with hays, grains and other feedstuffs do not maintain the same nutrient profile throughout the growing year nor from place to place in the country---changes in weather, soil, etc lead to changes in the nutrient profile of the crop that is growing. To maintain a balanced nutrient profile in it's feeds, Purina has a non-fixed formula so that they can adjust the amounts of each feedstuff in order to maintain a balanced nutrient profile in their products. It allows them to adjust for the differences in nutrient content from one batch of grain or forage to another and provide a balanced nutrient profile in the product as a whole.

Strategy has it's uses--as Peggy Sue said. It is a grain based feed and designed to provide energy for horses in work. If used in that situation where there are no medical conditions that would preclude the feeding of lots of non-structural carbs, it is fine.

Startgy is a low level feed from a company that likes to cut corners...

Ryle I am not so sure you know what Fixed Formula means ... fixed formula means not only are the ingredients the same EVERYTIME but they are tested to a certain level EVERYTIME... which means they are tested BEFORE they go into the feed

You cannot have the exact same nutrient every time with the exact same formulation when you are making the feed out of different batches of feedstuffs because the nutrient content of each feedstuff can and does vary.

" Fixed Formulation - Extensive ingredient research has proven, beyond a doubt, that a formula produced under 'Fixed Formulation', without credence to ingredient variability, will result in unknown and sometimes radical changes in nutrient levels. PMIŽ does produce non-laboratory products under Fixed Formulation. These are primarily economy minded formulated feeds that can be safely fed for production purposes to the beef, swine and dairy industries. The finished product testing on these products from season to season proves ingredient variability can change the nutritional composition of an animal feed."--http://www.labdiet.com/factsonformulation.htm

Ryle PMI is full of BS and you knwo it.... they work on Least cost effective on about what 95% of their feeds....

Kent, Triple Crown and Buckeye all test thier ingredients BEFORE using them.. meaning if they dont' test at a certain level they dont' use them ... and this is for all of their BETTER feeds!! Which is what I want a company to do... not wait and test later after the feed is mixed

I want my feeds the same EVERY bag... what's the point in doing a gradual change using Purina if every bag is not made with the same ingredients
:roll: