Is what I'm feeding ok?

I've recently changed my horses feed because the feed I was feeding hasn't been keeping weight on them (my mare especially) throughout winter.


I was feeding Producer's Pride 12% All Stock (because my usual feed store hasn't had Alfalfa and Oats in stock in ages now).


I talked with several people before switching feeds and have decided to go with Dumor Equistages:
Crude Protein (min.) 14.00%
Lysine (min.) .65%
Crude Fat (min.) 6.00%
Crude Fiber (max.) 18.00%
Calcium (Ca) (min.) .80%
Calcium (Ca) (max.) 1.25%
Phosphorus (P) (min.) .50%
Salt (NaCl) (min.) .25%
Salt (NaCl) (max.) .75%
Sodium (Na) (min.) .10%
Sodium (Na) (max.) .60%
Copper (Cu) (min.) 50.00ppm
Selenium (Se) (min.) .50ppm
Zinc (Zn) (min.) 150.00ppm
Vitamin A (min.) 3000IU/lb
Ash (max.) 9.00%


I am also feeding Standlee Alfalfa Hay Pellets:
Protein - not less that 16%
Crude Fat - not less than 1%
Crude Fiber - not more than 28%
Moisture - not more than 12%

I also feed Producer's Pride Cracked Corn:
Crude Protein (min.) 8.00%
Crude Fat (min.) 3.50%
Crude Fiber (max.) 3.00%

And I am feeding Start to Finish Cool Calories 100:
Crude Fat (min.) 99.0%
Total Fatty Acid (min.) 95.0%
Free Fatty Acids (max.) 1.0%
Unsaponifiable Matter (max.) 1.5%
Insoluble Impurities (max.) .0.5%
Moisture (max.) 1.0%

One of my horses is also on VitaFlex with MSM:
MSM (min) ...452 grams per pound
Ultra Pure Methylsulfonylmethane 99.8%

Now, my horses don't all get the same thing.

My mare is getting (daily): (she is at a good weight)
2lbs of Dumor Equistages
1lbs of Standlee Alfalfa Pellets (mainly to hide her joint supplement, as if she sees it, she won't eat her feed)
1 scoop of Cool Calories 100
1 scoop of Vitaflex with MSM

My oldest gelding is getting (daily): (he doesn't need anything, he's so fat, but he has to get something to tide him over while the other horses eat)
1lbs of Producer's Pride Cracked Corn
1/2lbs of Standlee Alfalfa Pellets

My youngest gelding gets (daily): (he's at a good weight, but is a hard keeper)
2lbs of Dumor Equistages
2lbs of Standlee Alfalfa Pellets
2 scoops of Cool Calories 100
1 scoop VitaFlex with MSM


My horses are on grass 24/7, so don't need a whole, whole lot... and I will be feeding them good quality hay starting after our first frost, as I am buying my own horses hay this year and am going for something that is a good quality instead of the cheap cattle hay my uncle always buys.

So, for now, is what I'm feeding ok?

I'd get rid of the corn, and I'm glad you've quit feeding the All Stock. That's about as bad as it gets, as far as feed.

Dumor products aren't the best, but they're still a heck of a lot better than Producer's Pride.

The alfalfa pellets are good, as is Cool Calories.

Why would you get rid of the corn, if you don't mind me asking?

I go halves of the corn with my great grandmother, because she wants some to give to the chickens but can't feed an entire bag, so I get most of it to give to my fat gelding because he doesn't need anything that will bump his weight on up and he has to have something to eat when I feed the other horses... I was figuring that that little amount of corn wouldn't hurt him and would give him something to eat on to make him think he's getting something.


I've always liked the Dumor products, anyway, especially their supplements, lol.

Anyway, just wondering about the corn thing...

Corn isn't really a good feed for horses - for starters, corn is very high in sugars. Using it to feed an already overweight horse is very counter-productive...there are plenty of less nutrtionally backwards options if you really want him to have something.

You're already giving your gelding alfalfa pellets, so he really doesn't need the corn.

Corn just isn't necessary in a horse's diet, and I won't feed it. Besides, if your gelding is prone to fat, corn is the worst thing for him as it's used as a weight builder for hard keepers.

You don't have to take my advice, but I think corn is a useless grain when it comes to horses. There are far better nutritional food stuffs.

I'm not sure why you have to go halves on a bag of cracked corn with your grandmother, anyway. It's not that expensive, and it's not like it's going to go bad if she buys a bag and feeds it to her chickens over several months.

Ohhhh... I didn't know that.

I'm not feed-inclined when it comes to understanding or getting some of these things.

What would be something better to give him that isn't counter-productive to his weight?

The alfalfa pellets are good, but if you want to go with something a little less calorie dense, you could always buy some timothy pellets.

My horses get Blue Seal Trotter, because it's an alfalfa based feed. I try not to feed any grains at all if I can get away with it, and definitely no corn.

I will be taking him off the corn, then. He's already fat and I don't need him getting any larger or becoming prone to any hoof or lameness issues...

He's not overweight to the point that he's obese, but he's probably a 7 on the body-score scale. He's a very easy keeper.

Corn is all starch, it's not very digestible for horses. It's a bad source of energy that burns out pretty quickly, like a sugar rush, then the horse "crashes".. It's basically candy, where *some* corn is okay, it's not good to feed a god bit of it to any horse...And really any other animal at that. If the horse is an easy keeper and can get over weight the corn can and will cause metabolic issues.

The Producer's Pride is crap as well.. It's smart to change your horses off of that feed and the corn.. Feeding those together is basically giving a kid candy for every meal and expecting it to be happy and healthy.. It's just not going to happen.

I'm not a fan of the Dumor..I use some of their supplements and I've had good results with it but not as a feed..

What you feed your horses can also depend on what type of work you're doing with them? There's a big difference in a horse that is worked hard 5 or so days a week and then a pleasure trail horse.

Good! You don't want him becoming laminitic, and if he's older he may be prone to IR, and corn will aggravate that. As a food stuff it's really just not a good choice for horses.

Producer's Pride All Stock scares me, and I'm glad you've taken your horses off it. It's used as a cattle feed, and horses can get sick and die if they eat cattle feed.