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No grain testimony!
I got my mustang gelding when he was 22 years old. Older, yes, I know, but for my first horse he was exactly what I needed. The first 3 years were easy, he could keep weight just fine on pasture alone and I had no complaints regarding his perfect mustang hooves or his shiny coat. His mane and tail never grew but they were decent enough. His topline was never great, he was a bit swaybacked but how to improve it I had no idea or even that it could be!
The fourth winter he got a bit thin and a very ignorent me gave him sweet feed which took care of that.
The next winter was different. Sweet feed didn’t work. Even 6 quarts!!! I still can’t beleive I fed him that, very embarrasing to think about now. My vet reccomended vegetable(soybean) oil which of course made him shine like diamonds but it didn’t help his weight much. Then I tried adding some cracked corn just as a cheap way to get extra calories in him. I tried a fat supplement from Mannapro, Coolcalories, it didn’t help. Then on to some other horse feeds and by the time we settled on a feed that helped the most who was to say that was the feed that really made a difference? Was it just a combination of everything? We settled on that feed anyway but what I realized is that even though his weight was passible at that point, his topline had slowly disappeared during all those “expirements”.
I did a bit of research, decided he needed more protein, and went into a feed store to see about a senoir feed with higher protein. The Nutrena rep recommended Nutrena’s Topline Balancer, a ration balancer. (Now I’m sitting here writing this chuckling at myself thinking “well, he wasn’t going to feed his family by telling me to buy Purina!”) The gentleman said if my horse was at a fine weight(at that point he was), and just needed a topline, this was the feed for us. I went with it but although his topline improved his weight went down. I got frustrated. Why couldn’t he hold weigh? I started reading. And researching. And reading. And researching. After a few weeks I stumbled across a article and intrigued, began reading the handful of comments. There in the comments I found the link to an article titled “Why Horses Should Not Be Fed Grain”. “Yeah right, I though.” But I was reading anything at this point so I clicked on it and for the first time in my reading and research found something that actually made sense. I was hooked and read article after article, reading very late several nights. I decided to take the No Grain Challenge and remove all grains and byproducts from my gelding’s diet. The change was remarkable.
As predicted, he lost his fat the first few weeks but on hay an alfalfa slowly put on healthy weight, not fat, and once I added soybean meal his coat was glossy and his mane and tail were shiny and finally started growing! His hooves became even harder and although he was already very calm he became even calmer. His topline began filling in as well! He also seemed to feel better and looked happier which meant and means the world to me!
We have just passed a year on “this diet” and are getting through our first full winter feeding grain free. This winter I choose not to feed alfalfa and until the grass started coming up he was on the thin side but looking back I am amazed at how much easier it was for him to keep weight on this winter even on just dormant grass and hay! Coming out of this winter I’m also realizing that his arthritis was much better too!
This clean feeding has truly done wonders for him and I wince to think where he might be today had I not come across that article.
Doc T, from the bottom of my heart, thank you!
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1 Reply
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Thank you for being persistent in finding answers and knowing the difference between cover up solutions versus actually solving problems. This detailed story of discovering answers and then applying them means more to your horse than anyone on the planet, though I would consider myself second or third on the list of ones appreciating your tenacity. Thank you for trying, sharing, contributing and believing. Doc T
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