Horse Feed - How to choose?

Why do you think Nutrena is low quality? I use and highly recommend Nutrena Safechoice. If you study it's nutritional information it is a very good feed.

  If your horse is an easy keeper, than you don't really need to be adding grain to the diet.  I would add either a  ration balancer or a free choice vitamin/mineral supplement.  Base your choice of product on a grass diet since the bulk of the forage is grass (pasture and hay).  In the ration balancers, I'd go with something like the Enrich 32.  Higher protein and Ca content than the 12. 
 
   In a loose vit/min look for something along the lines of 20% Ca, 10%P, no more than 20% salt (don't pay a premium for salt) and 100,000 IU Vit A.  Any mineral product that is 12:12 won't cut it.  It's equal parts Ca and P,12% to 12%, and you're looking for an additional Ca source.  Ideally, you would like slightly more Ca to P in the overall diet 1.5-2:1 and grass hay and pasture is roughly 1:1.  If you have a local mill, they will have something that is probably better suited for your local deficiencies than national brands.

I personally look at fat and protein % for my feeds and ADVOID sweet stuff (molasses) like the plague.
 
Go on the websites of what you can feed (Purina) see what they recommend for a pasture horse and the amounts. 
 
I am limited what I can get here too, but with some research I found something that works great for my horses and I just adjust the amount they get. 
 
You may want to consider a "complete feed" that would give her what she is not getting from the pasture also.

Hi,

Grains & starch/sugar rich feeds are generally problematic for horses. Their digestive system is not well designed to deal with them. For horses in hard work or otherwise needing extra energy, there are alternatives. As your horse sounds like she is not lacking in 'condition' & not really in work, nothing like that is necessary. Hay/grass is a great basic diet for horses. But you're right, that she'll need more than just that for nutrition, as she will be lacking & imbalanced in a range of nutrients.

I'm not familiar with those particular products you mention, but it will depend what your horse is already getting from grass & hay, etc, as to what she might need. Therefore I think at least a basic diet analysis is the go. I subscribe to a great program called www.FeedXL.com which is a fantastic, great value diet & feed analysis program, which takes the headache & confusion out of choosing the right products. It is also an advisory service, with equine nutritionists available to answer questions, give personal advice or help.

A 'ration balancer' is often a good, easy option. But these are generally grain based, so it may not be the best option. I actually have 'easy keepers' not in work, and I have chosen to feed this way tho. After trials of all sorts of combinations, fussy horses that wouldn't eat what I gave, considering I don't get up there every day. With the help of FeedXL I found that only 60g(!) of KER Gold Pellets & 100g of Hygain Zero daily gives my horses a very well balanced diets. (BTW this is app half recommended feeding as per package). The KER is expensive per bag and grain based, but with such a tiny feed daily, no worries on both counts! There are a huge variety of 'complete' supps out there & some are very free with the term 'complete' & 'balanced' I've also found you tend to get what you pay for, but the most expensive option at the counter may well be one of the most economical in the long run too.

ADM Alliance has a great website to help you learn about equine nutrition.

I use their SeniorGlo.