Cutting feed costs

Very rarely do you find hay that contains adequate nutrition. A vit/min sup if not feeding a concentrated feed is necessary to provide adequate nutrition.

IMO
Grass hay or cubes and if you want less hay, supplement with beetpulp pound for pound. Weighed dry. Hay or cubes should be the majority.
For supplements I like Hoffmans formula. 1 bag would probly last you a year.
& glucosamine if that's what you want.

I think that feedxl.com would be a worthy investment in your case. It calculates all of your horse's needs and compares that with what he's getting. You can also use it to calculate daily and annual cost.

I have used it to figure out how to provide my horses with everything they could possibly need for about $30-40 per month.

You need to have your hay tested to get an accurate reading.

Feedxl did not tell me anything I didn't already know. It was a complete waste of money for me. I'd much rather just call my nutritionist if I have other questions. Equine nutrition is not rocket science. It's actually quite simple :)

Really? That would mean there are many horses that are starving eating hay. It doesn't have great nutrition but it does have adequate, unless its like straw.

I guess I better go buy a bunch of feed for our horses that have been basically on just hay for the last year. They are all pleasantly plump, even the one that is usually a hard keeper.

The OP asked how to reduce costs. Since their horse has hay 24/7, the extra feed is not necessary. The horse will survive with just hay. If there are supplements needed like vitamin A or for its joints, that could be given with something like beet pulp, which is nutritional too.
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Personally, it's not so much the horse's weight and body condition as it is the smaller details when it comes to supplementation. I like a glossy thick coat without any dandruff and tough-as-nails hooves, among other things. In my experience these can only be achieved with adequate supplementation, though in my case I use a highly concentrated ration balancer (just 2-3 ounces per horse per day, mixed with a couple handfuls of alfalfa pellets). I agree that all of the typical "filler" in feeds is completely unnecessary.

Sure, horses generally do just fine and dandy without anything more than hay... but for me it's the details that count.

Calories and nutrition are two different things. You can have enuf of one without the other. Your post was pretty uneducated. You should probably figure out what you're talking about before you decide to get rude and sarcastic :)

The op also stated that she DIDN'T want to short change her horse on NUTRITION. A hay only diet (unless she has her hay tested and it comes back perfect.., highly unlikely) is going to take away most of the nutrition and leave her with the calories of the hay. The result could be hoof health suffers, hair coat suffers, etc etc.,, lots of things could happen if you take away a horses complete nutrition.

I also use a rb. Rb's aren't "grain." They don't contain any cereal grains,... Not any that I've ever seen anyways. They are highly concentrated and meant to be fed at around 1lb per 1,000lb horse per day. They are low NSC BC they don't contain "grains," such as corn, oats, etc.
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But if you need to cut costs, those "details" are not a necessity.
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It's not ok to half ass equine care IMO. If you can't afford basic nutrition, then you shouldn't own a horse.
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Well there it is. The OP should just sell their horse.

Horses have done fine through the years with just hay. It's amazing that they survived before RB's were invented, if I understand your opinion correctly.

It just sounds, to me, that someone gave you a great sales pitch to buy RB's. They can be beneficial, but they are not necessary. Just my opinion.
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