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I had never heard of them before, but it appears they carry a wide range of feeds. Are you concerned about keeping weight on her this winter? Did you have a particular product in mind from Kalmbach? What does her current diet consist of?

Here's more info on the two products I'm looking at:

http://www.kalmbachfeeds.com/shopping/equine/914HE.aspx

http://www.kalmbachfeeds.com/shopping/equine/9191BLK.aspx

Livestock do better with a lose mineral instead of a block. :)

Thanks for the advice!

She is a 13 year old Arabian named Dancer. Soon she won't be on pasture at all. I'm up in northern Minnesota so we have eight months of no forage to look forward too. :(

My supplier just started out hay farming and they haven't tested their hay. But I know the area and its never been farmed before. Its always been natural meadow so the ground shouldn't be too depleted. Of course that's probably not always a good indicator. A friend of mine told me they knew of a flock of sheep near here that actually died of copper deficiency. When the farmer had the vet test them the results showed that they had absolutely no copper in their systems. I've been reading that it might have actually been the sulfur from the coal plants that inhibited copper in the soil. Our goats always have to be bolused to be healthy. Should I look into some sort of copper drench for Dancer?

Yeah, the grain issue is why I was looking for a pelleted feed mix with alfalfa for the first ingredient. I definitely want to steer away from too much grain or anything with molasses in it so I don't feed the bad bacteria. I've tried a few different enriched vitamin and mineral fortified pellets before, but after a couple days she wouldn't eat them anymore. I've given her black oil sunflower seeds before too and she really liked them, I figured it should be better than grain because of the higher roughage, oil and protein. I didn't feed grain at all last winter and I have some probiotic that I use and it seems to help keep her digestion regular. And I also bought some alfalfa cubes to feed in the real cold of winter. I know this sounds like a lot of supplements to throw at her, but from year to year I haven't been able to get the same quality hay and I wanted to make sure she was getting what she needed. In a few years I'll hopefully be growing my own hay and that won't be a problem.

I know loose mineral is best, actually cattle really are the only livestock that benefit fully from a block mineral, but the last time I used it the minis thought it was fun to bite the edge of the dish and spill it. I suppose I could get something loose just for Dancer and give it to her in separate rations. I am also getting some loose pink sea salt to mix with kelp meal. I've given her gray sea salt and kelp before and she really liked it, but I didn't have enough then to give it to her regularly.

So, what do you think of adding some alfalfa cubes, sea salt and kelp mixed with this pellet, and then the block free choice? What about adding some black oil sunflower seeds?

Thanks again!

We have 34 horses at my barn in Massachusetts. Gotta love new England winters. :/ They are all different ages and breeds, but the majority are are on the "geriatric" side; over 15 with some well into their 30's :) With the exception of a select few, they are on a feed called LS Sentinel by Blue Seal. We have some ridiculously hard keepers as well as the ones who get fat off of air. This feed has done wonders for everyone in every way!! We have a few who can not eat hay, so they get added hay cubes (soaked) or alfalfa pellets and 2 who just get the LS and no hay type of any kind.
Here is the link for its info. https://www.sentinelfeed.com/pdfs/blueseal_sellsheet_LS.pdf
It's an extruded complete feed recommended by numerous vets. (We had to have a few specialists out for different issues, one being a stomach/digestion problem, and they all said the same thing.) I will not go to another feed again after seeing how this has benefited all of our guys and gals! Good Luck!! :)