[TheCoppertop]

I love calf manna! For me it put weight on a pregnant rescue belgian, a skinny TB, and it has helped turn around an anemic orphaned (at 4 mos) foal.

I give my TB 1 & 1/2 cups with each feeding and my vet has me giving 50/50 grain/manna to the filly (now almost 10 mos old). Love it!

I didn't know it helped hair growth but now that its been mentioned my TBs tail and mane grow insanely fast... I banged her tail from the ground to her hocks in July and its almost to the ground again.. mane was pulled in late Sept and it is too long for my taste again. Hmmm.

[Cherry]

Nothing special and can be found (except the corn) in complete feeds like Triple Crown Complete.

No, there's nothing special except that it is a supplement and made to be fed in small quantities; you're comparing apples to oranges (a supplement with high protein compared to a horse feed with lower protein). Calf Manna is just another tool for people who don't want to feed a lot of grains to their horse(s). I think it's 32% protein for those who like to know those numbers. In small quantities it can help with weight gain but in larger quantities it can send a horse through the roof so start on the low side and wait a couple weeks before increasing the amount. Your horse will tell you when he/she has reached his/her limit....

And Calf Manna was formulated long, long before the Triple Crown products. TC is just trying to improve on an old idea.....

[Equibrit]

I was not comparing the two products, merely pointing out that all those ingredients are already present in complete feeds, making supplementation unnecesary. Why feed a "supplement" in addition to feed when you can get the same, if not better results, using a beet pulp based complete feed?

[Sing Mia Song]

Yep, I use it--a cup in each feeding for the TB, and only 1 cup in the evening for my easy-keeper (who get a different concentrated ration in the mornings. It's definitely helped the hoof growth on my guys, and they eat it up so happily!

[Green Acres]

Yep, I remember CF!!! We feed that and clovite back in the 70's and 80's. After reading this maybe I should consider it for my skinny OTTB. He needs weight and to grow his silly looking tail!!!

I can't believe how many people are still feeding it!!!

[findeight]

Blast from the past when it was about all you could get supplement wise.

Well remember Clovite and Formula 707 as the vitamin choices (as I recall, Colvite was mainly available thru vets).

We used to feed about a handful of Calf Manna twice a day for a slick coat and that show horse "bloom".

Now you walk into the tack/feed store and there are 3 aisles of stuff...most of which does the same thing only costs more in a durn purty package.

[eggbutt]

Super great stuff! We've used it for years for our pregnant mares and foals when weaning. A little goes a long way! We don't use the little box anymore. Instead we use a plastic 1/2 cup measure and give one measure to each adult horse each morning.

[MsM]

Another feeling old here!
Calf Manna was one of the few "supplements" that owners I knew fed!
Oh, the wormer issue! Used to get little silver bags of powdered wormer. Then you had to figure out how to get your horse to eat it in his grain. Some swore by freezing it, others added Kool Ade, Im sure there were more techniques too. Of course none of them worked on a picky horse so at least once a year the vet would come and put the tube down the horse's nose to get the stuff into him! In between time, you did what you could, but it wasnt real effective. And when ivermectin was first being used, it was injected by the vet. After a couple of horses around here died from reactions, people shied away from that. Many were really slow to be convinced that paste wormers really worked and you didnt need to subject your horse to the vet tubing.
If you had a lame horse, the vet was really limited in diganostics. Not all had X-ray machines (and those machines were large!) No ultrasound etc. Which is just as well, since there were very few treatments beyond old folk remedies, common sense precautions, time and "Dr Green" (throw him out on pasture for a couple months and see if he comes back sound!)
Some things about the good old days weren't so good!

[Appassionato]

I was not comparing the two products, merely pointing out that all those ingredients are already present in complete feeds, making supplementation unnecesary. Why feed a "supplement" in addition to feed when you can get the same, if not better results, using a beet pulp based complete feed?

Unfortunately my guy needed more protein than his 14% beet pulp based complete feed. Others that are down in weight or under high stress might also need more protein.

And OMG, I fed Clovits a long time ago! Really, that was good stuff!

[ThreeFigs]

OK, I'm digressing -- back in those "good old days" that MsM mentioned -- we were told to use packets of Bull Durham tobacco to worm my first horse. The old man who dispensed this valuable information was an old-time cowboy and horse trader. The same old man who sold us this mare as a 7-year-old, when in fact she was at least twice that age. No matter, she was the perfect horse for my first.

We only "wormed" her once using Bull Durham before someone else clued us into the vet's tube worming and packets of worming medicine. I think the tobacco actually did expel a few worms. Evidently the tobacco will kill or anesthetize at least some of the worms in a horse's gut.

Shortly thereafter, we learned about Calf Manna for horses. We fed it for years and years to all sorts of horses --pregnant, lactating, weanlings, horses in work. It was a good all purpose supplement!

[JSwan]

Yup - a plug of tobacco is the old-timey method of worming. I don't know how effective it was - but nicotine poisoning does kill bugs on my roses!

Anyone ever heard of a manure tea? About a year ago I was at a feed store talking to an old horseman and he mentioned having to give a manure tea to a horse.

I thought geez - nowadays there are a lot of products that accomplish what he wants without the ick factor. But - that's what folks used to do and I guess it worked to some extent....

[findeight]

Tobacco killed the Bots...disgusting, the carcasses would be in the manure. Kind of doubt it did much for the rest of the worm varieties.

I remember the fasting before and after the tubing and the advent of the ivermectin injections.

God, I feel old.

[ThreeFigs]

J Swan, what would a manure tea do to/for a horse? This one's new to me!

[Renae]

I was not comparing the two products, merely pointing out that all those ingredients are already present in complete feeds, making supplementation unnecesary. Why feed a "supplement" in addition to feed when you can get the same, if not better results, using a beet pulp based complete feed?

Because one is feeding it for the protein. As I said I feed the Purina version, Animax, which is 28% protein. I feed it in addition to Purina Strategy and local grass hay. Alfalfa is ridiculously expensive in my area, and I know of no "beet pulp based complete feed" that would meet the feeding needs for my lactating broodmares and growing horses. I can keep my horses on the same amount of strategy and hay and just up the animax when they have the additional need, and decrease it when they don't.

[etc.]

My daughter's horse was on a box of it each night when we got him in the mid 90's. He looked and went great then and still gets it. I guess it takes a larger dose to be an energy booster....because he's never been a bundle of energy, just very laid back! (Not complaining though!)

[Melelio]

Yeah, I'm old enough to remember all that stuff, and when I first saw that big H/J barns were using Orvus shampoo to wash horses....I thought the stuff was magic, hard in cold, amber liquid in heat! Then I found out it was just SLS....yuck....

Sigh...I was JUST about to maybe add CM to my guys new diet, except that it has soy in it.... I think my QH mare is reactive to it, so off of soy everyone goes.....

[deltawave]

It's fine, I've used it (although I hate the smell) but there are more modern products that also fit the bill, so it wouldn't be my first choice. Still, it's a collection of nutrients, nothing more and nothing less, so if its particular combination were what a horse of mine needed, sure I'd get some.

that's what folks used to do and I guess it worked to some extent

I disagree. Just because an animal survives some barbaric treatment doesn't mean it "worked". Of course 30 years from now there will doubtless be a lot of about what we consider modern and wonderful treatments, but resurrecting or perpetuating the old and questionable (if not downright scary) just because of nostalgia is nuts.

[Pennywell Bay]

Love the calf manna for the younger horses.

[SLW]

My vet recommeneds Calf Manna for ulcer prone/ulcer prevention because of the high calcium. The "old" clients know what he is talking about. The "young" ones have to google Calf Manna.

[saxony]

Clovite and Calf Manna - a trip down memory lane!!