My trainer says that I should switch Tango from LMF Senior to alfalfa pellets. It will keep his weight up without giving him too much extra energy she says.

Anyway, how much should I give him?

Right now he gets:
? Three flakes of grass hay
? Three pounds of LMF Senior
? One pound of Rice Bran

How much alfalfa pellets should I give him when I switch him over?

Thanks!

Amber, I have one simple question for you: Why in the world are you feeding a 9 YEAR OLD horse a feed which is meant for horses in their 20's and 30's? This feed you're describing is intended to be fed to horses which are basically companion animals or pasture ornaments, NOT to young horses that are just entering the prime of their lives the way Tango is. Tango is TOO YOUNG to be on such a feed- and it's no wonder your trainer wants you to switch him off it. It doesn't provide the kind of nutrients and energy he needs to be fit and stay healthy, not at his stage of life. He needs to be on something like the Legends feed we give our horses. Legends is a complete feed too, and it comes in a variety of different protein and fat levels for horses at different life stages and activity levels. Right now, we feed Legends Performance, which has 12% protein, 11% fiber/forage content, and 10% fat. It's a sweet feed, yes, but it has relatively low levels of molasses and is formulated to help PREVENT colic, founder, and insulin resistance problems. We add alfalfa pellets (NOT CUBES) to the Legends to increase the protein content and add additional fiber.

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If you fed Legends instead of the senior feed you're currently using, you could potentially eliminate the need to feed Tango rice bran. The only purpose for feeding rice bran is to put weight on a horse without making the animal "hot" and stupid, but none of our horses have that problem because we also feed them generous amounts of wet beet pulp at each meal in addition to the Legends/alfalfa mix. Beet pulp is a wonderful food for helping horses hold their weight, and like the rice bran, it is also a "cool" feed which doesn't make horses stupid or hard to ride and train. The only thing you need to pay attention to with regard to beet pulp is that it can NEVER, EVER be fed to Tango while it's DRY- it MUST BE SOAKED, for safety's sake. Dry beet pulp is DANGEROUS, Amber- it can and will dry water right out of the hind gut of the horse, and has been known to cause fatal cases of colic. Every vet I have ever known or worked around in my professional career has warned me about the dangers of feeding dry beet pulp to horses, so there must be something to it. When we mix the alfalfa pellets in with the Legends, we generally add about one quart of pellets to every two quarts of grain ( we use a 2 quart scoop for mixing) until the feed bucket we use is full. We have 11 horses right now, and they get varying amounts of this mix according to their ages and breed. Our oldest horse is 28 now, and he gets more of the grain than some of the younger ones do, simply because he has to work a lot harder at holding his weight in the winter.

In Tango's case, I would start by giving him the equivalent of one quarter of his regular ration in alfalfa pellets, and then gradually increase the amount over a period of several days or a week or so, until the amount he's eating in pellets equals the amount he was getting in his other feed. At the same time, you can gradually start backing away from feeding the senior feed. Don't quit cold turkey at first- take him off it slowly. If you want to switch to Legends, follow this same pattern- give Tango a quarter of his ration in the Legends first, and then gradually increase that while you slowly decrease the other stuff, until he's completely weaned off the other stuff. Another thing you should look at is your hay. Grass hay is fine for horses which aren't doing a lot of hard work, but if you're competing a lot with Tango, then you may want to consider switching him to a hay with a higher protein content, like the Teff that we use. Teff is a kind of grass hay which has only recently been introduced in the United States. Native to South America ( the horses in Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and a few other countries there eat a lot of it) Teff is drought resistant and grows well in hot climates like those in the Midwest. We've been lucky enough to find a farmer here who grows it- and he's given us first pick of his crops for the last few years now. Most of the hay we currently have is either pure Teff or a Teff/Timothy mix. If you can get it, you might want to consider giving Tango some Timothy hay- I realize that Teff may be hard to come by.