ProElite Grass Advantage Ultra Premium Equine Diet Balancer Horse Feed, 50-lb bag

I have two older quarter horses (20 & 24) that are easy keepers. So much so, that I was feeding them about half the recommended amount of their complete feed in addition to 24 hour pasture access. In addition to limiting calories, they were only getting half the recommended amount of vitamins and minerals. Rather than add an additional supplement, I decided to switch to a ration balancer that would provide all the required vitamins, minerals, and protein while limiting starch and sugar in about the same volume as their complete feed. I made the switch to ProElite Grass Advantage over a couple of days and by the end of the week, both horses (even my picky eater, shown) were chowing down as if I hadn't changed anything. I feel much better knowing that my older geldings are getting everything they need nutritionally without unnecessary extra calories.

Friday I received my bag of ProElite Grass Advantage, which is made by Cargill. Since my horses are on 24/7 turn out, and just beginning training, I figured this would be a perfect top dress balancer for their regular feed ration. Today I began to top dress their feed at 1 cup per twice daily feeding and increase as needed over the period of the next few days (you can't abruptly change their diet without running the risk of colic and/or founder, both which can be life threatening). Needless to say, it will take at least a few weeks to actually see what the benefit from feeding this product is. Upon opening the bag, I noticed the feed had a stale/rancid smell to it, unlike the pelleted product that I feed daily. The pellets looked okay, but did have that rancid fat smell that you get when a bag has been on the store shelf for far too long, or has been stored inapropriately. Not sure of this is typical, or just something with this bag/batch which shows it was only manufactured on April 30th. My 4 year old sorrel gelding, who would eat rocks if you let him, dove right in without question, and gobbled his right up. My little 2 year old filly hesitated and picked through her feed at first, but then settled in and finished hers as well, so they must taste ok, just smell funky. I don't know yet if I will recommend this product, as I haven't the time needed to feed it out before needing to leave a review.

My 16yo Haflinger eats this well (he basically eats anything). I thought I’d try it because it was on sale, so I saved $25 on two bags. It has slightly less protein than other balancers and costs slightly more.

We have two 20-year old horses, one pure Paso Fino & the other, half Paso Fino/half Peruvian Paso. I had hoped this feed would be a good supplement to their hay/grass diet. The label didn’t give a feeding recommendation for our boys so I a little less than a cup each, just as a treat. They were eager to get it ate it fine for almost a month before our Paso Fino started showing signs of laminitis. X-rays & a thorough exam show he was trimmed too short but did not definitively confirm he is foundering. We don’t have the blood test results back yet & the vet told us not to change what we are currently doing until we get the results. I did however, stop the pelletized feed for now. I was not aware that Paso Finos are known to have issues with too many carbohydrates & will wait to see how his tests come back before going forward from here.