Grain Free Diet Update

So back in March I was able to swap my horses to a grain free diet. I feel like when people think of "Grain" they think of any feeds, when grain is defined by oats, barley, corn, milo, wheat, rice, and rye. Most horses suffice off of good pasture but of course some need those extra calories. I am not an anti grain person, like I said I just recently swapped my horses. My horses also have always been easy keepers so this was not to "bulk" them up either.

I personally also cannot afford to feed the fancy good feeds like triple crown and blue bonnet where they are $30+ a bag... So I simply decided for my wallet, horse's health and happiness, that I would just take them off of feeds all together. Why did I do it in the first place? So what do I feed?

Well, while doing more research and finding out that horse's bodies aren't even designed to digest the grains in general, why feed them?? Well growing up as most, I learn from everyone else. I fed what my step mom fed, what we have been feeding for years, and what we feed has never put our horses constantly in the vet, stomach issues, health issues in general, they were never ever skinny, in fact, fat, so why did I stop?

Well it is a story... lets get to it.

I bought Mia at 6 months old, I have owned her since then and she is now 6 years old. From a weanling, she was already on the feed my family has been feeding for more than a decade. It is a line from our feed store called "Energizer". Energizer is a plain pellet, no molasses in it, pretty basic feed with a 14% protein/5% fat/12% fiber ratio. It also can be fed to cattle. Mia ate this fine, her body score was fine as well, She was growing great and filling out too. When I started riding her lightly, I started supplementing her. She got to where she would eat around the supplements, so that is when I swapped her to another line from our feed store called Horse Power Plus. It was more of a textured feed, essentially being a 25% corn chop/25%alfalfa pellet/50% whole oat mix, however I added more alfalfa pellets to this mix for more fiber. This feed had a 13% protein/6% fat/12%fiber.

Mia seemed to do ok on that feed as well but then started again, leaving supplements in the bottom of the pan. We also were hauling a lot which was adding stress to her and she would get anxious and nervous and get the runny poops, which led to me believing she now has ulcers. Due to this I decided to try and find a feed that was lower in starch and sugars and so I came across Nutrena feeds. Which I knew the brand existed but I did not know much about it. I also did not want to pay $20 a bag so I resulted into buying the Nutrena 12-8. It had what looked to be molasses because it was a darker pellet and a little sticky, but the supplements stuck to it and Mia loved it. However, it seemed to worsen her possible (at the time) ulcers. I never got Mia scoped to find out, however she became very dancy while grooming and tacking up and more.... pokey than her normal self... While I had somewhat contemplating her having ulcers, I tried changing other things first. I swapped her cinch from a mohair to a weaver smart cinch felt lined where the buckle was padded and not fully pressured. The swap in that helped alot as well as feeding alfalfa pellets prior to riding to triple check that she had something on her stomach. While she still became a little dancy and cinchy, I decided the best thing was to just go ahead and treat her for ulcers because it wasn't going to hurt her by any means.

I knew ulcer treatment was going to cost me an arm and a leg because $40 a tube for 30 days is ridiculous... and I really was just hoping that she was going to get better with a chiropractor adjustment, like maybe a rib was out? and then swapping some tack and feed and taking other precautions, so I decided to just as around to see if there were other things to treat them with other than ulcer guard. My friend Lauren Underwood contacted me and said that the CEP Gut Check was a lot cheaper and better as well, plus the horses love it. So I asked her what the damage would be to my wallet and she said $100 for 100 doses. Wait... what?! SOLD! That is SO MUCH BETTER than spending 1200 on ulcer guard for a month. The great thing about the CEP is that it doubles as a treatment and can be used as a supplement and you also do not have to wean them off of it like you should do with ulcer guard. 10 cc is the normal dose and you double that for a month for treatment, so 20 cc for 30 days. When I tell you within 5 days my horse felt AMAZING..... I am NOT exaggerating!!! CEP Gut Check I will ALWAYS have in my barn/trailer!! I do however, recommend "investing" in a drencher syringe like you use to deworm cattle with lol because my horse loves it so much she will literally take the syringe away from me and break it.... I went through so many syringes and I still am not done with treatment yet LOL- here is the link to the syringes I got off of amazon!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KRHB72W?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

So fast forward to swapping them to a grain free diet- I still have my 2 on Redmond Daily Gold. https://redmondequine.com/redmond-daily-gold

I also have them on MSM, a biotin, electrolytes, flaxseed and will be adding a vitamin E, selenium, and zinc mix by animed when it finally arrives in the mail. They also have a free choice Hors Lic mineral tub in their pasture. What I am actually feeding is just alfalfa/timothy pellets by standlee which I pick up at Atwoods or Tractor Supply.

My horses are on pasture with free choice hay when grass isn't growing 24-7. This limits stress, let's them burn excess calories if not getting ridden and also just lets them be horses! I also do not blanket my horses lol (VERY VERY VERY RARE if I EVER do)

It will have been 3 weeks this Saturday, April 9th 2022, since I swapped them to grain free and they are happier, healthy and just feel so much better when actually riding! With them getting lots of fiber, they have became completely different horses in a good way!

I hope everyone is doing well and are getting those miles in! Happy Trails everyone!