A Peek Inside Shooter's Feed Bucket

I am always a bit nosy when it comes to what people feed their horses and thought I would do a series showing what I feed mine. I started with Dreamer and you can click here to read his and now it is time to share what Shooter eats. Shooter is a 10 year old appendix quarter horse (he is 3/4 thoroughbred and 1/4 quarter horse) and luckily has just enough quarter horse in him to counteract the traditional “hard keeper” you often see with thoroughbreds. With that being said he does lose weight and keep his more “in shape” physique better than my other two who have no thoroughbred bloodlines. He is retired from a long show career as a hunter under saddle horse but does get lunged and ridden on a regular basis. He gets fed pretty much free choice bermuda hay.

As far as grain and supplements go there is some overlap between him and Dreamer. I just recently switched him over to Triple Crown Lite grain am/pm from Total Equine. I loved Total Equine and it definitely made him look good, almost too good and he got pretty plump on it this winter and summer. Total Equine is alfalfa based and would give Shooter a little more energy than he needs with his lessened work schedule and could sometimes make him hyper. So, when I switched Dreamer over to the Triple Crown Lite I decided to try Shooter on it too. Triple Crown’s Lite is a grain and molasses free, reduced calorie, high fiber pelleted feed that is perfect for older, easy keepers as well as horses who have Cushings, Insulin Resistance or Laminitis. One of the things I love about it, is that two pounds of Triple Crown Lite provides the same amount of vitamins and minerals that are normally provided in five to eight pounds of competitor feeds. So you can feed less of it to easy keepers but they still get all the vitamins and minerals in a smaller serving of feed. You can learn more at triplecrownfeed.com.

As far as supplements go, Shooter gets a SmartPak with SmartCalm and SmartFlex Ultimate.

As I mentioned Shooter has a a fair amount of thoroughbred in him and that can definitely make him a little hyper, high-strung and spooky sometimes. We often joke when he is being silly that his thoroughbred is showing! SmartCalm is an herb-free pellet designed to support proper nervous system function, helping to minimize excessive skittishness. It’s main ingredient is magnesium which is known to have a calming effect on horses, helping to ease muscle tremors and nervousness.

Shooter enjoyed a long successful show career as a hunter under saddle horse and was ridden and shown extensively since he was a two year old, so he does suffer from the normal wear and tear arthritis that you often see in show horses. SmartFlex Ultimate helps keep him sound and happy. I did a whole post detailing why I love SmartFlex Ultimate and you can read about it here.

Besides his SmartPak, Shooter also gets Farrier’s Formula Hoof Supplement and SimplyFlax. Shooter has terrible hooves (again I blame his thoroughbred descendants) and he has to stay on a hoof supplement to help keep them strong and healthy. I have used Farrier’s Formula for a few months now and I can honestly say his feet look great. I also like that it’s results have been studied and backed by independent research and it is consistently the number 1 recommended supplement by farriers. Shooter is allergic to fly bites and SimplyFlax works wonders at keeping fly bite welts at bay. I put him on it every spring and he stays on it until the first freeze. I have also written a post about SimplyFlax and detail other reasons to supplement flax and you can read about that here.

Shooter also gets Purina’s Outlast Gastric Support Supplement. Being a little high strung definitely puts him the category to develop ulcers and this was a game-changer when I showed him. We could always tell when he got ulcers because he would get more spooky and irritated and lose some of his super sweet demeanor. Outlast worked wonders on him and he has stayed on it ever since. Using Outlast on Shooter and seeing the results convinced my trainer to but his whole barn on it.