Blue Seal feeds - who uses them?

[TrueColours]

For anyone using Blue Seal feeds for your breeding stock, stallions, broodmares, youngsters, etc - are you happy with the quality, pricing and overall results of the product line?

Do they offer a diverse enough range of products to meet the needs of all of your horses whether they are easy keepers, need weight, are older, have specific nutritional issues that need to be addressed?

Pros and cons of this line of feed?

Many thanks! :)

[Erin Pittman]

I am personally not a fan of Blue Seal - too low in fat, high in carbs for my taste (at least the Growth/Broodmare feed)...

[Royal Monaco]

My 1 y.o. foal and his two paddock mates were kind of hard to put some fat on there ribs so we changed from Purina to Blue Seal and they gained wheight within 2 weeks with the same amount of grain.

Blue Seal is a little more expensive, but it's worth it. Not only have they gained weight, but they also have a more shiny coat and just look in better shape.

[classicsporthorses]

We actually switched from our custom made feed to Blue Seal Versatility. We have everythig here from breeding stallions, mares, youngsters and old horses and they all do SUPER on it. In fact we have been able to cut our feed bill in 1/2 using Blue Seal Versatility b/c they seem to digest it to much more efficiently.

[ise@ssl]

We feed Blue Seal Vintage Victory - high fat , low starch. We've fed Blue Seal Feeds for 22 years. I love the quality - we just sometimes have trouble with the local feed store that has the account with them to keep our feed in stock. We have foals to seniors and a lot of broodmares - it works for all of them and the horses that are competing as well.

[TheBandit]

I use Blue Seal feeds. I have been really happy with all of their products. Not to mention the smell of the Sunshine Plus!

All of my guys get the Sunshine Plus. I feed Demand to my youngsters.
I have also fed Hunter with good success.

I have just started feeding Carb Guard to my oldie with no teeth. He seems to be maintaining his weight on a mush of Hay Stretcher and Carb Guard.

I have had some people tell me that they find Blue Seal expensive, but I have found it compareable to other brands.

I think the Kinburn Farm Supply is one of the only places to get Blue Seal in Ontario.

[sprucie]

I've tried Blue Seal, but didn't like it for hard keepers. They have too low of fat, and it just isn't that great of a feed. The horses seem to produce more manure, and I have to feed alot more just to keep weight on them. I much prefer Buckeye/Progressive to Blue Seal.

[ise@ssl]

I'm so surprised to hear people way their horses don't keep weight. We have warmbloods and german riding ponies. My 17.2 Hand older DWB is in super weight and he gets less than 4 quarts a day of Vintage Victory. My horses do get turn out on good pasture and timothy or grass hay when they are inside. We honestly don't have a single underweight horse of any age on the farm.

And the Vintage Victory DOES have a high fat % - not sure if the people who are saying it doesn't have enough fat are talking about all the feeds or just the one they tried.

[bwf]

My whole barn is on Blue seal. WE feed about 6 different kinds. They all look fantastic.

[Phoebe]

I've been feeding it for years and use a variety of their products - right now I've got broodmare on it, a hard to keep TB, yearlings, weanlings and the ones in work (show hunters) also have a 30 yr old pony that LOVES Vintage Senior - I find the quality execellent, horses like it and do very well on it

Don't know if this is the case everywhere but my local feed store gave me a coupon today - 2 free bags if you bought 2 - turned out to be a $35 dollar savings -- a very good thing in today's economy!!!!

[pintopiaffe]

The Vintage lines are comparable to Triple Crown or other high-end lines, IMO. High fat, easily digestible, etc. I really like Vintage Victory for adult non-breeding animals.

APHA farm I used to work for used Vintage Gold exclusively, with ok hay and dirt turnout, most anyone got was 4 quarts (unk weight as it's extruded--fed that by volume)

Agree the Mare & foal is too starchy.

Am interested to try the versatility based on Classic's experience.

Currently I use plain whole grains (oats/alfafa) and BS Min-a-mix for grass hay. Triple Crown growth has been THE answer for the skinny yearling.

I did find TC SR to be superior to Vintage Sr for my old, hard keeper Trak broodie.

I'm really on the fence on switching to the Versatility. I want to feed less, and I'm thinking I'm quite possibly feeding *too much* fiber for really great digestibility.

You never stop learning!

[sprucie]

I've tried the Vintage Versatility, and the product was made too inconsistently. There were times that it would be almost all molasses, and had weird chunks in it. Then other times, it was made that way it was supposed to be, but had the same weird chunks. It did not keep weight on my horses, and that was probably because of the added molasses. The sugar in it prevents horses from utilizing all the fat and calories properly. Their coats didn't look as good and shiny either.

I've tried lots of different feeds, and I like Buckeye and Progressive the best. I'm currently feeding Buckeye's Endurance 101, and my mare looks great on it. The mare I lost that was a VERY hard keeper got 3 quarts of Progressive's Hi-Fat diet balancer per feeding, and looked great on it until she got quite sick.

[Showsheen]

:D You will not find a better recommendation than from me...
I have fed Blue Seal for over 30 years and I have some of the top winning conformation horses, including a multi-National Champion. I have fed newborn babies to antique retirees-up to age 28 on Blue Seal. If anything, I need to feed very little grain. My horses do too well on it and they are mostly thoroughbreds, from 15.2 to 17.3 hh and if anything they are all too hog fat. Mine all seem to love it and there is no way you can not keep fat on a horse with Blue Seal.
I have told Blue Seal they should use my horses for their ads-especially when the National Champion was in his element but they never took me up on it, too bad.:)

[Katie-Nicole]

I'm trying the new vintage performance LS. 12% protein, 12% fat and 20% fiber. We'll see how it goes. I have a barn full of easy keepers, and everyone's on only a 1/4 scoop 2x/day. I'm sure I could go without, but the two geldings are on supplements, so it's hard to feed grain to just two without the others screaming for it.

[ASB Stars]

I have been using Blue Seal Performance LS for about two and a half months, and I've cut back on the amount of feed I am using, dramatically.

Now, I should mention I use beet pulp with it, and Buckeye Gro N Win as well, for the harder keepers, but I am thrilled, over all, with the program. My horses look great, feel great, and it isn't breaking the bank.

[KBEquine]

We used to use Blue Seal & felt it really worked well for our horses, from breeding stallions/mares to pasture pets, foals to antiques.

We didn't use the mare/foal, so can't comment on that. I do remember they had a summer & a winter variety, meaning more molasses in the summer, but decreased the amount in the winter [because it would freeze or something] & that was a little annoying.

Overall, we really liked it, and only stopped using it because we moved to a place where there were no local dealers. We discovered another feed we like even better, but if we moved to where THAT food wasn't available & Blue Seal was, I"m sure we'd be happy to use Blue Seal again.

[TrueColours]

Thanks so much for the feedback everyone.

We are looking at getting the product in to Ontario, Canada and wanted to get a feel for how the clients viewed the products that they have been using on their horses

Very much appreciated ... :)