FeedXL is an online nutrition calculator that helps you figure out if what you’re feeding your horse meets its nutritional requirements. I tried FeedXL.com when it first came out. At the time, it basically confirmed that I was feeding my horse an appropriate diet so I shrugged and didn’t think much more about it.
Then a couple of weeks ago, I started to consider my options for Freedom. I wanted to up his calories, keep his starch levels low and at least try to keep my solution cost effective. He can sometimes drop weight over the winter so I need to feed him more, while at the same time keeping him sane — not always an easy task when I’m also riding less.
When faced with all of the different variables out there (each feed company has SO many options) it was daunting. So I decided to try FeedXL again. I’m not sure now why I was dismissive of it because it’s a really helpful program offered at a very modest cost. One of the things I really like about it is you can buy access by the month. That’s perfect for me as I doubt that once I decide what I want to feed, I’ll need it again until the spring. I started with the “lite” option, which costs $15 for one horse for one month (a year is $45). After trying it out, I upgraded to the “pro” option, an additional $5 for a month (or $60 for a year), because I wanted to see the more complete nutritional analysis.
Using the program I was sure that I was meeting Freedom’s full nutritional needs and compare calories and costs. In the end I decided to add Triple Crown Low Starch pellets to his regime along with alfalfa pellets and beet pulp. I had been feeding him a ration balancer to keep non-structural carbohydrates low, but since he needs calories (ration balancers are great for delivering a lot of nutritional punch in small quantities), eating a bit more of a complete feed isn’t an issue. I discovered that there were some nutritional “holes” that needed to be filled with a good multi-vitamin. I chose HorseTech’s Grass Plus supplement.
The only thing that you can’t include in your FeedXL calculations is NSC (Non Soluble Carbohydrates) but folks at FeedXL say they are working on that.
