It just isn't workable due to the layout. I would have to invest a lot of $$$ to divide the pasture, and I have no electricity there. Feeding Herbie is costing me a fortune as it is, so no extra money to do remodeling.

I had a mare who got bagged chopped alfalfa as an addition to her diet. The hay was dusty so it got enough water to take down the dust.
You are correct in thinking that dust is not good for the lungs.

Many years ago I had an aged little Welsh mare who had very few teeth left. I made her a mash of hay pellets and senior feed. She happily slurped it down and lived to 32. I fed twice a day and she spent her days nibbling around the pasture.

I really don't know if it is true, but I had heard that the best hay is baled, the second best is used for compressed bales, the third is used for cubes, and the worst/leftover stuff is made into pellets.

Any truth to that??

I think it depends on the mill. I've seen some really really good quality pellets out there. I used to use Mountain Sunrise, which are made without binders or fillers. Standlee is also quality, you can tell by just looking and smelling the pellets. And I've seen some really gross hay bales

Could Herbie stay in the stall in the day, maybe with some boards put around it so the other horses can't reach his feed and put the feed bin on the ground, and leave him enough feed for the whole day. Then at night he could go out on the pasture with one extra feeding if needed while the other two horses are in at night?

You can spread the cubes around in several buckets in the stall so he's not just standing in one spot in the stall all day.

I might be able to just put up some more boards, thank you! Don't know why that didn't occur to me...that shouldn't cost much and he could still see the others. But will leave him up at night so he can be in the sunshine during the day.

Someone else mentioned ulcers if he's without food for too long. I was feeding one of my horses bentonite clay for his stomach and suspected ulcers (bio sponge and daily gold are two products I know of). Then I learned it's a binder used in the pellets, so it could help to have clay in the pellets to buffer stomach acid. I'm sure it's a small amount but it's good to know what's in the feed. Ultimately what helped get rid of my horses stomach symptoms was a full pellet diet, so I think if he has enough feed it doesn't matter if it's hay, pellets, or cubes.

Very interesting! I want to provide the best nutrition I can for him, while still keeping my costs reasonable. Price wise, the cost for bagged, cubed and pellets are very similar per pound.

My thought was that the cubed is more dried so a better value when rehydrated, but I don't have any scientific proof to back that up...

I have the choice of Standlee or Dumor, but I only buy the Standlee.

I was using the Standlee and was ordering them through Chewy.com, they were $13 per bag delivered to my door. Great! Then they randomly went up to $24 a bag! Ugh! Now they want $28... crazy. And they had the nerve to charge me for the product without informing my of a price change. Well it worked out cause they refunded me and I got the last 4 bags for free. But then I had to find another supplier.

I think Standlee are still around $13-$14 at my local TS last time I was there. The Dumor are definitely of a different quality. Lots of dust and the pellets are less green, more brown. Those are close to the same price, but there's 10lbs more, or 20% more. When I calculated my costs the most recent time I couldn't afford the Standlee ones anymore. I've been feeding the Dumor ones since then, and on occasion when I've run out I've gotten ASI (Alfalfa Supply Inc) but those are $16 for a 50lb bag at my local store, and they smell weird to me. Though I have to say there was no noticeable difference to the horses between the Standlee and the Dumor.

I think the best deal is if you can find a mill and buy them direct, maybe even in 55gal drums and you can buy a few hundred #'s at a time. A local feed store that buys from a mill might be able to order something like that for you. Mine did before I moved and I haven't tried to find another mill since then, but probably should look around.

I'm worried these prices are going to keep going up by $1 a bag here or there... It will be hard for me to make that work.

I have been stalking this thread today as I feed Standlee products but not as a replacer for hay or have to deal with horses with major dental issues.

I too order my pellets from Chewy.com because it was a $1/bag cheaper plus less fuel driving 2 hours round trip to get them. (Before we moved last month)
When you mentioned the price hike at chewy, I had to go look, yikes! I canceled my automatic shipments!!!




I live a few minutes from Standlee and the bags average $13 here. Someone mentioned the bentonite clay used to bind the cubes, I don't "think" Standlee uses it. But I know who to call to ask. It was my understanding that was the older method of binding and caused a lot of choke issues, hence why soaking was so important. Obviously, for Anita, she would still have to soak for Herbie because of his dental issues.

Also, something to think about for a horse who was most likely being fed balloon bread because it's cheap which has a lot of starch and sugar, he might be protesting a bit to eating a cleaner diet. Much like a kid eating nothing but chips and pop and stuffing a plate of broccoli in front of him.

I believe in the past on this forum I had complained my horses turned their noses up at the alfalfa and beet pulp pellets from Standlee. It took a couple of months weaning them off the complete feed(Purina Senior) onto straight alfalfa and beet pulp pellets to feed their supplements. Now they love it.
Maybe give some of the senior/complete mixed in with the chopped hay, pellets, cubes or whatever you decide to go at each meal rather than once a day. So he gets some of the sweetness with each feeding encouraging him to clean it all up?

Anyhow, Anita, he's a nice looking horse and I'm glad he landed softly with you :)

@COWCHICK77 thank you for the kind words! I am the type of person that can become very left brained at times (some say OCD) so information from a source at Standlee would be VERY helpful to me, and others I'm sure.

I feel that the alfalfa/oat mix cubes are the healthiest, but not sure. Although I am a big fan of Timothy hay, the seed heads I see in all the bagged hays concern me. Have heard seed heads can get stuck in horses teeth and cause issues.

Straight alfalfa IMO is too rich, but not sure if a senior needs that richness.

I have seen some weight gain since adding in the 2 pounds of alfalfa/oat cubes, so I am pleased about that.

Herbie eats nearly anything, and too quickly too! He follows me around and appears happy to live here.

He prefers the wet hay cubes to the chopped straight alfalfa hay and doesn't like apples...silly horse!