11/06/2026
I stress this all the time with my customers who come to me for advice. There is no point in focusing on any type of feed whether that’s straights or compound feeds if the overall diet isn’t balanced.
Also I’m stressing a lot recently on the importance of weighing your feed, you could save a lot of money if you actually weigh what you’re using to ensure your 1. Feeding enough or 2. Feeding to much
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WORRY ABOUT BALANCE ⚖.. rather than whether or not feeds are processed.
It's interesting how fashions change.
Over the 25+ years I've been working in horse nutrition, I'm not sure I've ever come across so many unbalanced diets, usually in horses whose owners are trying to avoid compound feeds (e.g. nuts, pellets, mixes).
Unbalanced diets are harmful!
If we feed straights ie avoid compound feeds then we need to have much greater nutrition expertise in order to ensure the horse's diet is balanced.
I keep coming across horses whose owners have good intentions, yet are feeding bad diets, because they're unbalanced.
Here's some unbalanced diets that are commonly fed by owners trying to avoid processed feeds:
❌ hay or haylage-only (or hay/haylage plus grass only)
❌ using grass or alfalfa (lucerne) nuts as the concentrate feed
❌ using phosphorus-rich straight like copra meal or linseed, without balancing for calcium
❌ 'natural' balancers that do not contain added microminerals (with forage)
❌ chopped forage feeds with herbs/other additions, that do not contain added microminerals (with forage)
❌ 'balancer' supplements without vitamins, fed to horses on low or no-grass diets
Unbalanced diets are definitely bad, and can lead to a myriad of health issues.
Processed feeds are not bad, and I've worked with thousands of horses over 25+ years who've been fed successfully with compound 'processed' feeds.
For clarification:
Can you feed a horse successfully without compound feeds?
Yes, you can, but you need to have much greater nutrition expertise to ensure the diet is balanced (the whole point of making a compound feed is to balance the forage).
I'm going to write another post tomorrow on why processed horse feeds (compound feeds) are worlds apart from processed human food - especially the unhealthy ultra processed food that anti-compound horse owners often point to.
If you're interested in this, don't miss tomorrow's installment!
(Feel free to share)
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