Co-Op Equi Lite Complete.....anyone tried this ?

[My Pasos]

This is supposed to be new. I am considering trying this. It is a new complete horse feed that accounts for grain as well as forage. If fed properly to horse, hay isn't needed.

Anyone try this yet. It just come out.

[Carol Nelson]

How much is it? These hay prices are killing me.

Hate to quit feeding hay...because I really believe they need the forage but shoot, maybe just to get through the winter.

[My Pasos]

I don't know yet. I will find out on Thursday. It was in my Co-Op Mag.

[Linda Y]

Our Co-op here just closed. Figures. But if it has grain in it I can't feed it anyway. :(

[CarolU]

Yeah, given choice, you're better off feeding good quality hay and getting rid of prepared feeds and grain. Horses DO need the fiber, their digestive system is made for fowsing 20 hrs/day - not two big meals, and they get bored silly once they don't have anything to eat.

But, if hay is very hard to find, a fully nutritional feed is the way to go.

Horses rarely need grain. I only grain this Arizona horse because she needs the carbs, but the others are on hay and Equine Senior. They do fine, even all winter, and we've had REAL winter this year.

[Terri]

I don't know anything about this particular feed, but there are lots of "complete feeds" out there (Purina Senior for example) that supposedly eliminates the need to feed hay. I know hay is expensive but I would be wary of switching to an only complete feed diet. 1) it really doesnt' save any money. The amount of complete feed you need to eliminate hay is pretty high 2) horses are designed as grazing animals. As long as their teeth are in working order they are far better off digestively speaking chewing on small meals of hay all day long. 3) chewing the hay helps keet them warm in the winter. 4) because it is in their natures to graze, I think mentally they are better off with hay.

There are ways to feed less hay. You can suppliment with beet pulp or timothy/alfalpha cubes.

I would be interested to know if anyone on this board has successful taken their horse off hay and on to a complete feed.

[My Pasos]

Honestly by the picture in the Magazine, it looks to be pelleted.

[Terri]

Yeah it probably is pelleted. And it is probably beet pulp based. You can just buy bags of beet pulp (remember to soak) if you want to suppliment your hay.

[CarolU]

There are a lot of barns that feed pelleted feed instead of hay, totally. I've seen a couple. It takes up less space, there's less waste, and it's less messy. But, I think these are all human considerations and no one asked the horses. 30-minutes after feeding the horses were done and bored out of their gords until the next meal time.

I think this is where a lot of stall vices come from.

[My Pasos]

I am not saying I am going to completly stop the hay. I am just saying to help supplement them a little more when the hay is low.

[Pasodeb4]

I checked with my Co-op on this feed. It was $7.40 a bag two weeks ago. I got the information on it, and if I recall correctly, you have to feed 3 times the amount of regular feed.

It is pelleted and is a 13% protein.

It would cost me approx. $60 a week to feed it compared to approx. $40 a week for the feed and hay I currently use. So, it is more expensive, but if I had no hay and no option of obtaining any, it would be a good alternative.

[PasoVicki]

Here's an interesting site I came across recently. It's by Colorado State University, and it addresses feed substitutes in times of drought :

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/livestk/01625.html