Don't shoot the messanger here please. Years
ago I visited a processing plant (which I will leave un named) for a field trip
and saw that some of waste on the floor (hay debris, some bugs, some rodent poop
ect) was being swept up and then dumped back into the processing for
pellets. That was pretty ichy for me. Not trying to panic anyone out
there about this, but just be mindful about what you are feeding and for me this
made me only want to feed certain feeds that come from manufacturing facilities
such as Purina where in they only have a few select plants around the US and
they are all screened very carefully.
I, for one, would be interested in knowing why you
asked if anyone had seen how pellets are made and then finished with that
cryptic "out of sight out of mind."
Dressage barn that I trained at in Los Gatos
years ago used these routinely as their main feed source. Horses were
all stalled and turned out once a day to a dry individual paddock
area. When I asked my trainer why they used the pellets her reply was
simply: easier to handle and store than hay.
Problem is that a horse is meant to spend the
majority of their day eating. I fear that horses that are kept on such
a restrictive diet will develop other vices because they have too much time
on their hands (or hooves!). Plus I have seen horses choke on cubes
and pellets before and that is very scary.
I would only use these when we go high country
camping or on a road trip, making sure that my horse was accustom to eating
them prior to our travels. Soaking has been mentioned, which is a
great idea, especially for the cubes. I personally would not recommend
them for the only source of food, although I do know a lot of folks that
feed it.
Have you ever been to a feed plant and see how
they make some of these pellets? But then again, out of sight
out of mind.
