[ejforrest]

Grains cause colic, ulcers, founder, tying up, insulin and glucose spikes, diarrhea and other health problems.
You can call your land grant university or cooperative extension services for an equine nutritionits, they are paid through out tax dollars, so their services to you are free. You can call the Equine Science Society to help find a member equine nutritionist in your state or region. 217-356-3182
Hay/grass is the most important part of a horses diet-fiber and plenty of it. Grains should only be an add on for horse doing hard work such as racing, polo, eventing, endurance, or for those that cannot maintain their weight.
fat is a great energy feed. 2.5 times more energy than oats, corn, and barely and is well tolorated by the horse. Add slowly. You can feed 1-2 cups a day. Start feeding now. It takes the horse 3-4 weeks to use fat as an energy source and about 6 weeks for the blood chemistry to adapt to fat. If you feed fat for energy, feed a vitamin/mineral supplement with it to help balance the diet. Beet pulp has the same calorie value as oats but with out the starch and it is an easy to digest fiber. Fat and beet pulp make a great energy feed.

[Chantal.]

What kind of fat are you talking about ? Where can it be found?

[imacowgirl2]

Originally Posted by chillebrand

Somewhere on here I read something about a ration balancer that is best for crested horse, any chance you remember that?

Any ration balancer is going to be just as good for a cresty horse as another because none of them contain grains, which is often what sets of the immune reaction that causes the crest

Here's a webpage to search for Buckeye dealers in Canada...no idea where you are in Canada, but hopefully one is close to you If you click on the place where to put a state in, it also has the Canadian provinces available to choose.

http://www.buckeyenutrition.com/dealers.html

Also...check around at any large private and/or boarding barns...a lot of times the larger barns are feed dealers so they can get their feed cheaper, and if they are a feed dealer you can buy feed from them. That's where we get all our feed, as our feed store doesn't carry anything except Purina.