Do you use Triple Crown feeds? If so or have in the past, please tell me of your experiences. Do/did your horse(s) consume more salt while on them? Did it take more feed to keep their weight steady? If you have switched off, to what feed and why? If you don’t feed Triple Crown feeds, what is it you are currently feeding whom, how much, and do you like it? Why or why not?
Thank you!
Adventures of Life 
Buttercup is currently on Legends Show & Pleasure Textured feed, she gets just a couple of handfuls each day (I know precise measurements right?!)
http://www.southernstates.com/catalog/p-1949-legends-show-pleasure-textured-50lb.aspx
I’ve been 100% happy with it, she has maintained her weight and it does a great job of hiding her meds 🙂 We’ve always used Legends feeds, and have never been disappointed. When she was in foal and nursing we used their Mare & Foal feed and when we were really into riding she was fed the pelleted show and pleasure feed, in all cases she maintained her weight and I didn’t notice any increase in salt/mineral/water consumption.
One of my high school friends hard a REALLY hard keeper and she and her family swore by the Triple Crown feeds. I can’t recall which it was but they said it was the only feed they found that could keep weight on their thoroughbred. I don’t recall any complaints about salt consumption either, but it’s been over 10 years so the formula may have changed.
I did experiment with a bag of Triple Crown Lite pelleted for Buttercup and she didn’t seem to like it as much as the Legends, so I switched her back but that’s probably the princess just being a little picky!
Very helpful! Thanks SG!
The post below brings up a good point – price! The Legends runs me about $14 a bag after tax. The Triple Crown, when I bought it 4 years ago, was running at or a little above $20. Not such a big deal when feeding a single horse as little as I do but having multiples or a hard keeper would mean a lot more $.
As you’ve probably guessed, I’ve hit a wall with Flirt’s weight gain. In talking with my bff, it was noted that her mare is also consuming salt like mad while on TC. I’ve had great results with Strategy as my go-to grain here, as I cannot get LMF outside of the West, which is my preferred feed.
My barn feeds a generic pelleted feed. It’s a 12% pellet and although I can’t recall the name of it, there isn’t a skinny horse on the property… (Well, Ok, maybe 1). I know it’s about $9 a bag, so it’s pretty inexpensive.
I like to keep a bag of feed in my truck for “snacks” I make bran mashes with hot water for them when it’s so cold out. I use Nutrena feeds for this, and I love Nutrena, but man is it getting expensive! A bag of Compete (12% pellet) is $17, and a bag of Senior pellet is $21!!
Good thing
As you know we are really limited in the feed types we can get up here. I have a medium to hard keeper and when we are riding so much preparing for the CTR I starting feeding a warm mash of rice bran, alfalfa pellets and 12% complete horse, along with millenium gold, Vitamin E, and Vitamin A. The rice bran is high in fat and Voosh gained the 100 pounds she needed and has maintained it. Remember that protein is good but weight gain seems to come from the fat.
When the lambs go off feed and hit a plateau we drench them with an egg mixture (eggs, oil, Ovaltine, bunch of other stuff). After 4 days their appetite is back and they start gaining weight again. Wonder if she needs a dose of Probiotics?
What does the lady who runs the Phat Pharm say? 🙂
Flirt WILL NOT eat mashes. Specifically, no beet pulp! She tells me it’s horrid, no matter how I dress it. She’s a picky, picky girl. I switched her grain today to Strategy Healthy Edge and she gobbled it right up. It has beet pulp, rice bran and Amplify in it. And I can feed as little as half of the Triple Crown. So, we will see.
The vet recommended TC and Amplify for Sug to gain weight on. She did ok on that combo, but by then, she was ready for a bit of a slow down. She’s come back from her “diet” while in boarding before moving here. The 75# or so she’d lost are all mostly gained back on a good, steady diet of hay with some grain. But Flirt has been my problem child. Then again, we’re still in the getting to know you stage.
Recently, as of this week, Flirt has decided that she trusts me. The big, brains-fell-out spooking she’d been doing has all but vanished. She’s becoming calm and sensible. Maybe it’s because we don’t beat up on her and we feed her? Really, feeding her has been a chore! It’s like trying to get your picky preschool princess to eat something more than just “red”. And, I’ve got her on an ulcer med now. By day 3 I was seeing an improvement in her appetite. She still walks off from hay though. *sigh* We’ll get there…
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I fed one of the Triple Crown feeds (Lifetime or Low Starch, don’t remember) briefly while I was searching for the feed that worked best for me and Misty. I was looking for something concentrated, that didn’t call for a large amount to be fed daily. I think the triple crown was 5 or more pounds a day for Misty. I went through it pretty quickly.
I switched to Progressive Nutrition Diet Balancer (grass formula) about 5 years ago and have been very happy with it. Misty likes it. SaraJane absolutely LOVES it.
Forgot to mention what I liked about Progressive Nutrition’s Diet Balancer. I want my horses eating a lot of forage and want the supplemental feed to be a small amount. That’s why I like the concentrated pellets. It stretches my feed dollar a little more too. At the time, I think the Triple Crown and Progessive were close in price. The Progressive might be a little more expensive, but it lasts longer. I also like the low carb options and the different diet balancers that are formulated specifically to supplement the type of forage (grass or alfalfa hay). I’ve been to several feeding seminars offered by various manufacturers and I liked the Progressive Nutrition information. The spokesman from company headquarters was a horseman, and had the credentials and education and was more than just a sales rep. They also had a regional veterinarian on their staff who did barn visits (even to my little barn of just 2 horses) who looked at my horses and advised me on how much to feed. And my regular vets agreed that it is a good feed. So I felt confident that it was a good, healthy choice.
Progressive Nutrition looks interesting. Unfortunately, the nearest dealer is more than 100 miles from me. 😦