Feeding Cubes. Help pls.

  Yes, cubes are typically made from lower quality hay but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  Mature horses are better suited for mature, stemmy alfalfa that will be around 12-14% protein than fine stem leafy immature alfalfa with a protein content of 18+ and a Ca of 6+:1.  The concern for choke is also valid.  Some cubes are mini bricks while others will pull apart easily.  You can also help mitigate the choking by keeping on top of dental care, wetting down the cubes and spreading them over a large surface to slow the eating down.  The benefits of cubes are storage and assurance of supply and quality.  They are made of longer pieces than pellets so you will have the long stem fiber for GI health.
 
  The biggest mark against cubes is the amount of time a horse can eat them in.  They might spend an hour to a hour 1/2 eating a normal hay diet while they can finish off their cubes in 15 mins.  It's hard to satisfy the "chew time" with cubes as most horses would like to spend 1/2 their day eating.

We fed cubes the year we had the bad drought.  We did have choke problems - so I would make sure to soak all cubes well.  However, other than that - the horses seemed to do well on it. 

We feed alfalfa cubes when we take our trip out west every summer as you have to have weed free hay and it is easier to find the cubes. Our horses really like them and we do soak them first to prevent choke.

Enteroliths should also be a concern with alfalfa cubes (or hay) if they represent 50% or more of the horses roughage intake.

We feed alfalfa cubes to the older 15 yrs and up horses (18 total) and they do fine.  We do soak the cubes for the older horses, but not the others.  Never seen any of the horses choke, but you should try to prevent that for sure by adding some large rocks in their feeders to make them work around the rocks when eating....it will slow them down.  I would also have some other forage in their diet to keep the alfalfa less or equal to 50% of their diet.....some horses do great on 100% alfalfa...but the risks of enterliths are increased. 
 
I know it's a tough decision...hopefully you can afford the extra bucks for the stepped up feeding.
 
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