5 Considerations When Choosing a Horse Feed
I get this question all the time in various forms:
What grain should I feed my horse?
Here’s the thing. I’m not going to tell you what brand of horse feed to buy. Mostly because there are a lot of good options and you have to figure out what works best for your horse.
Before we dive into my tips, let me make a few disclaimers:
I will be the first to tell you that regional feeds are often a great option and I simply do not know every regional feed company, which is why I am offering a list of general tips.
You could pick the absolute best feed available in your location and bring it back to the barn, only to discover that your horse won’t eat it. I’ve been there before and it is incredibly frustrating. BUT, this just means that this feed is, in fact, not the best feed for you because your horse will not eat it. Palatability is a huge part of choosing a feed. Choose what makes sense for you and your horse that will actually be eaten and not wasted.
I am writing this blog about grain assuming that you have already dialed in your horse’s hay, which should ALWAYS be the number one part of their diet. Horses are physiologically designed to eat hay. Evaluating a horse’s diet should always start with hay. The grain is just the cherry on top.
I am aware that your location and budget will affect this. There’s nothing to feel guilty about. You do the best you can do. No one is judging you in this space.
If your horse has a medical condition, is under or overweight, or is underperforming in some way, I would STRONGLY recommend seeking the help of a qualified equine nutritionist who can help balance every nutrient in your horse’s diet. When there is a condition involved, you don’t want to guess or make assumptions. Get some professional help.
With all of that being said, let’s walk through five main things I look for on the feed tag when shopping for my horse’s feed so that you can make your own decisions:
1) What are the first few ingredients? The highest quality feeds have actual ingredients as the first few because that is what is in the bag in the largest percentage. If the first few ingredients are fillers, by-products or generic/collective terms (things like “grain products, forage products, etc.), I’m not impressed with this feed.
That means that the company changes the formula based on what is the commodity market is doing and if the ingredients in the largest quantity are changing… this is not the best for my horse’s health. The equine digestive tract requires consistency OR very small, calculated changes.
2) The trace mineral package. I’m a mineral freak. I know that and I accept it. The reason I care so much about minerals is that virtually every body system is dependent on minerals. This includes joints, hooves, hair and skin, the nervous system and much more. Rather than looking for whether or not biotin, glucosamine or some of these other ingredients people obsess over are added, I want to know what’s going on with the mineral package because that gets to the backbone (literally!) of the body.
In their truest form, minerals are rocks. When animals eat plants, the minerals in the soil have been absorbed into the plant material, so the animal is eating an “organic” version or the version of the mineral that will be absorbed and utilized at the highest rate. Horses eat plants, not rocks.
When humans began to add minerals to feed, they started adding the rock version of minerals (i.e. not absorbed into plant material), and since animals are not adapted to eating rocks, we learned that this form of mineral is not well absorbed or utilized by the body.
Organic minerals that are added to feed have been chelated. This means that they are attached to something the animal is adapted to eat, such as an amino acid or protein.
How can you tell?
On the feed tag, read the names of the trace minerals in the ingredient list. Specifically look for copper, zinc, manganese and cobalt. If they are added in the inorganic “rock” version they will be listed as an oxide or sulfate (ex. copper oxide or copper sulfate). If they are added in their organic, usable version they will be listed as an amino acid complex, proteinate or chelate (ex. Copper proteinate, copper amino acid complex, copper chelate).
Note: Some companies use a mix of both organic and inorganic minerals to save costs. This is obviously preferable to all inorganics, but not as fabulous as 100% organic. You will also notice when you begin to read feed tags that the large, national feed companies you know and love are using oxides and sulfates, which frankly, is old technology and not the healthiest option anymore.
Main point: Don’t get swept away by the marketing or packaging. Read the label. And do the best you can with the options available to you.
3) Selenium. Also a mineral, but it is a highly important one! Selenium is crucial for antioxidant capacity, performance and more. Horses have a very thin margin of what is acceptable in their diet. Too much selenium can lead to deadly toxicity and too little can lead to harmful deficiency.
The organic version of selenium is absorbed and utilized at higher rates and can really make a difference in your horse’s performance. The inorganic version of selenium is actually a toxic by-product and no one likes that.
Again, look on the feed tag. The organic version will be labeled as “selenium yeast.” The inorganic version will be labeled as “sodium selenite.”
4) Added pre- and probiotics. I’ll be honest, this is not necessary, but it is a really great bonus! I recommend that you read the feed tag so that if a fermentation product or strain of probiotic is in the bag, you at least know which one is being added.
There are tons of reasons why you may still want to supplement your horse’s diet with a high-quality pre- and probiotic. However, if you have a horse at maintenance or living in the pasture that is not under much stress, a feed that already includes a baseline level of gut health support is a nice option.
If your horse has a chronic digestive condition, is under performance or travel stress, I recommend adding a digestive health supplement (but you should still know what is in the feed you choose). My favorite brand, for its quality assurance and science-based formulas, can be found here and feel free to message me with any questions.
5) How much you have to feed. This tip gets a little nuanced. But here’s the thing: You must read the feed tag for the instructions on how much feed you should be feeding per day. The amount listed is the amount you need to feed in order to supply your horse with the correct concentration of micronutrients.
SO, if you have a fat horse or a horse with a chronic condition (like Cushing’s, Metabolic Syndrome, etc.) and you are feeding a senior feed, which is designed to be fed at 10-12 pounds per day, YOU ARE CHOOSING THE WRONG FEED.
Not only are you likely not feeding 10-12 pounds of grain per day (because your horse’s weight would blow up even more), which means that your horse is not getting the correct amount of minerals or nutrients, if you fed that much per day you would worsen your horse’s condition. Does that make sense?
In this example, you would be better off to choose a ration balancer which is designed to be fed at 1-2 pounds per day and that amount will supply your horse with the critical minerals needed for health.
Let’s Pull This Together
There’s a lot of considerations when figuring out which brand of feed to choose. This blog is not meant to cover every single detail. Again, if your horse has a medical condition, it is super important to consult an equine nutritionist for help in balancing their diet.
If you have a healthy horse, make sure that you are reading the feed tag. Just like you should be reading the labels of the food you buy for yourself, it is really crucial that you take the time to learn about what is in each bag of feed.
Health really does start with what we put into our bodies. Our horses (and other pets) are at our mercy and discretion, so pay attention and seek help when necessary.
I hope this helps and I’m thinking of you.
Xoxo,
Em
