Grain feeds.. What do you recommend?

I have a kentucky mountain horse who is 5 years old. He gets 19.5 lbs of hay a day and a lb of oats mixed with healthy coat.



That's him..
Anyway. I recently learned that oats is only a short time energy feed.. and Ace only gets 30min of excersice a day plus he is in the pasture all day except the bad ones..
He will be showing in spring for saddleseat.
What to you guys recommend for his diet, he is between 15.3 and 16hh and he weighs app. 1300.

Pretty boy. He doesn't look as if he needs grain added to his diet to me.
Fat is a slow longer lasting energy thing but if this was my horse I wouldn't add any fat either.
If/when you start really working him if he loses weight you could look at his diet again.
Not saying your boy is fat but he really doesn't need to gain any weight either. Seems to be doing fine on what you are giving him.

I think he'd do fine on just hay and either a ration balancer (like Triple Crown 30% Supplement) or a multi-vitamin (SmartPak has several varieties of "SmartVites" available for different situations). I don't think the oats are doing anything for him- he doesn't need the extra calories and oats don't offer a lot in the way of nutrition, either.

I think oats are a good choice *assuming* you need to feed grain. There are generally healthier alternatives if a horse needs more energy/condition. Your horse is obviously not short of condition & needing extra energy. So agree with others. Grass/hay & a nutritional supplement, pref grain/starch free & very low dose. Also it's best to feed little & often & this is more important with starchy feeds such as grain, sweetened, oil rich, etc.