Reading a feed tag: choosing the right concentrate

The front of the bag is marketing. The guaranteed analysis and the ingredient list on the back tell you what you're actually buying — and whether your horse needs it at all.

The feed aisle at the co-op is designed to confuse you. Bags shout "Senior," "Performance," "Ultra," with photos of glossy horses and words like "complete" and "advanced." None of that is the information you need. Flip the bag over. Everything that matters is in two boring blocks: the guaranteed analysis and the ingredient list.

Start with a harder question than which feed — ask whether your horse needs a concentrate at all. A great many pleasure horses on decent hay need nothing but a ration balancer to top off vitamins and minerals. Concentrates exist to add calories and nutrients that forage can't supply for horses in real work, hard keepers, broodmares, and growing youngsters. Plenty of owners need talking out of a twelve-dollar performance feed for a retired pony who's already too fat, bought because the bag said "complete nutrition." Match the feed to the job.

The guaranteed analysis lists minimums and maximums by percent. Crude protein for most adult maintenance horses needs to be in the 10 to 14 percent range; the number matters less than whether the diet overall meets the horse's amino acid needs, especially lysine. Crude fat tells you calorie density — a 6 percent feed is standard, while 8 to 12 percent fat marks a feed built to add weight or fuel endurance work without piling on starch. Crude fiber over about 12 to 15 percent signals a higher-forage, lower-energy feed, which is what you want for easy keepers.

The number the tag often hides is the one that matters most for metabolic horses: starch and sugar, together called non-structural carbohydrates, or NSC. Mainstream sweet feeds can run 30 to 45 percent NSC, which is fine for a hard-working event horse and dangerous for an insulin-resistant pony. A feed marketed as "low starch" should be under about 20 percent NSC, and ideally the company publishes the actual figure rather than just the slogan. If it isn't on the bag, call the manufacturer — reputable ones will tell you.

Now the ingredient list. Look for whether it's a "fixed formula" or "least-cost formula." Fixed-formula feeds use the same ingredients in every batch; least-cost feeds substitute whatever grain by-product is cheapest that month, which means the nutrition — and your horse's gut microbes — get a moving target. Named ingredients (beet pulp, soybean meal, flaxseed) tell you more than vague catch-alls like "grain products" or "plant protein products." Added fat from rice bran, flax, or vegetable oil is a clean way to deliver calories without starch.

Pay attention to feeding rate, because a feed is only "balanced" when fed at the rate on the bag. A fortified feed designed to be fed at six pounds a day delivers its full vitamin and mineral package only at six pounds. Feed two pounds because your horse doesn't need the calories, and you've shortchanged the micronutrients while still spending the money. That's exactly the gap a ration balancer fills — full fortification in a one-to-two-pound serving.

A few practical matches we recommend. The good-doer in light work: ration balancer, full stop. The performance horse needing energy but prone to fizz or ulcers: a high-fat, high-fiber, controlled-starch feed. The hard keeper: a calorie-dense feed with added fat and beet pulp, layered onto plenty of forage — and there's more on that in putting weight on the hard keeper under its own article. The senior with poor teeth: a true senior feed that can be fed as a complete ration and soaked into a mash.

Whatever you choose, change to it slowly. Switching feeds overnight is one of the most common avoidable causes of colic, because the hindgut bacteria need a week or more to adapt to new substrate. Walk through the schedule in transitioning feed safely before you swap a single bag.

One last reality check before you add anything: most horses on a properly fortified feed at the correct rate do not need a pile of extra supplements. The marketing wants you to stack a joint powder, a coat oil, and a calming paste on top of a complete feed. Read the tag first, fix the foundation, and only then ask whether a targeted supplement earns its keep — a question we take apart in does your horse actually need that supplement.