Is there a better horse feed brand?

My horse is a hard keeper. Right now I have him on Purina Strategy, but I’m looking for something that is higher in fat and fiber. I’ve been looking at the labels of several different brands of grain, and many of them are virtually identical in the guaranteed analysis. Is there any reason one brand may be better than another?

Answer
Isn’t it funny how some feed companies don’t list their ingredients on their websites? A lot of companies use “least-cost formulas”. Least-cost formulas contain “collective terms” which may be a group of ingredients that the feed company can pick from from week to week depending on what commodity is cheapest. Least-cost formulas often lack consistency and quality, compared to fixed formula feeds. Horses are very sensitive in their diet and if a feed company swaps out a more digestible ingredient, for a lesser digestible ingredient because the prices have come down that week, your horse technically isn’t getting the same feed from week to week.

Furthermore, the guaranteed analysis only tells part of the story. It tells you the over all analysis of the feed, but doesn’t tell you where those essential nutrients are coming from. Are they coming from a very digestible source that your horse can utilize readily? Or is that nutrient completely unaccessible and not able to do your horse any good whatsoever?

If you are going to pay a premium price for your horse’s grain, you had better be getting a premium product with premium performance along with it.

Best case, is to stick with Fixed Formula feed companies. We will never go back to a least cost formula after we noticed our horses falling apart.

If you are looking for something higher in fat and fiber, we have used Cadence (Protein 10, Fat 10, Fiber 10) or Cadence Ultra (Protein 14, Fat 14, Fiber 14) with great results. Buckeye Nutrition always has fixed formulas and our horses look great on it.