Equipride Horse Food

EquiPride horse food is a dietary supplement intended to increase the efficiency of your horse's digestion, leading to increased health. A side benefit of feeding EquiPride supplement is a reduction in your feeding cost, because the horse will eat less hay, pasture and grains due to an increase in nutrients absorbed from its current diet.

EquiPride feed supplement for horses is a product of Montana-based Agri-Best Feeds. Presented as a "top dress" granular feed, the product is also available in a mineral block version called EquiLix. EquiPride supplement contains pre-digested nutrients immediately available to the horse. EquiPride is purchased in 25-pound pails or 50-pound bags.

Agri-Best explains that corn is used to produce ethanol. Manufacturing plants break down the corn stalks by hammering the corn plant into pulp, adding liquids and enzymes, and in the end siphoning off the ethanol product and discarding the unneeded pulp. The unneeded pulp from that process is excellent feed for horses and cattle, as the work to get at the nutrients stored within the plant cells has already been done---chewing, churning with liquid and adding of enzymes to break down proteins as happens in the ruminant's digestive system--and hard-to-digest starches have been removed. This leaves the nutrients readily available for the horse or cow to digest. Direct from the ethanol plant, this byproduct feed breaks down quickly. EquiPride takes this corn by-product and adds to it material from the same process performed on wheat, barley, oats and flax, to better represent a horse's natural diet, as well as adding yeast and yeast by-products. EquiPride stores these nutrients within dried granules, allowing for greater shelf-life and larger geographical distribution of the product.

No urea is used in making EquiPride horse food supplement, so it is safe for consumption by horses. Some horses may not like the taste and will refuse the supplement unless it is mixed with syrup or applesauce. Feed your horse 1 ounce of EquiPride supplement per 100 pounds. A 1,000-pound horse would then eat 10 ounces of supplement or two scoops of the included 5-ounce cup. At that rate, a 25-pound bucket should last 40 days. For horses in need of recovery from digestive problems or other health concerns, increase the amount when first feeding the supplement.

EquiPride supplement increases the amount of vitamins and minerals in the horse's diet as well as supplying nutrients needed by the beneficial bacteria in the horse's digestive system. Healthy bacteria are more efficient; they will draw more nutrients from the food in the waste stream and into the horse's bloodstream, where the nutrients can benefit the horse's health. Agri-Best claims that EquiPride supplement will increase the efficiency of nutrient uptake by 25 percent, reducing the horse-owner's feeding costs. Scott Anderson of Agri-Best Feeds says, "On a mature animal in good condition this means they will eat 25% less hay or pasture."

Testimonies of horse owners who have tried EquiPride state that being on the supplement calms nervous horses and stops such behaviors as wood-chewing. When you first feed your horses EquiPride, expect them to really dig into it, as though making up for lost time with the nutrients they will now get. Over time, they will reduce the amount of the supplement they gobble.