US Horse feeds

Question
I imported 2 horses from Ireland to US and need to get the equivalent if 1 scoop of alfalfa and 1 scoop of beet pulp here.  The hay here is different and turnout on grass is limited compared to Ireland and the horses may not be getting enough roughage/fibre.  One horse is on oat free enduro (he has too much energy) but he really needs a lot of fibre.  Please advise brands and amounts.  Thanks.

Answer
Hi Pamela, Without knowing how many quarts a scoop is that your referring to I can't tell you the exact amount.  However, my scoop that I use is 3 quarts.  You can buy pelleted alfalfa and feed the alfalfa that way just mixed in with his grain.  If you want to buy the baled alfalfa I would suggest starting your horse out on 1 flake per feeding when you feed his grain.  If you go with the baled alfalfa I would also mix that 1 flake with a flake or two of timothy or orchard grass.  The amount would depend on how much your horse needs in order to keep his weight on, without seeing the horse it's hard for me to tell you exact amounts.  You can also get the alfalfa cubes to feed and if you do this you need to soak them first as they can easily get choked on them.  As for the beet pulp, I would just do a scoop of beet pulp already soaked in with his grain.  Again, I'm referring to the 3 quart scoop that I use.  All of my horses are on pasture part of the time and what I feed my TB is 1 1/2 sc. 10% pellets, 1 sc. soaked beet pulp and supplements, I do this twice a day and he goes out on decent pasture at night and back in his stall during the day.  Not all of the horses here are on beet pulp just the ones who are a little harder to keep or ones who are on depleted pastures.  You referred to one of your horses having excess energy, I would find another type of hay to feed that one rather than the alfalfa as alfalfa is highest in protein of any other hay which means it will give them more energy, especially if they're getting limited turnout.  I would suggest timothy or orchard grass as it has all the extra nutrients in it as opposed to fescue hay without the added protein.  If I have a hot horse the first thing I do is take it off of alfalfa hay, assuming it doesn't need to extra energy for disciplines such as show jumping or eventing.  You may feed this horse more beet pulp to make up for taking the alfalfa away if you're supplementing your alfalfa with pellets or cubes.  In reference to the enduro feed, I'm not familiar with that feed so I can't comment on that.  However, the grains I prefer to feed are pellets rather than sweet feed or oats.  Sweet feed and oats have a higher rate of colic than pellets.  Pellets have a higher risk of choking but I've never had a problem and if your worried you can just soak them.  My vet recommends pellets over the other.  I do feed some of these horses here sweet feed but only because the owner prefers that.  Being that it sounds like your horses are on limited turnout they will be at greater risk of colic so I would take every precaution possible as to avoid a colic episode.  I would also suggest feeding low protein and high fat content, especially for the hotter one, if your horses aren't needing that extra energy for their job.  Hope this helps, Jessica