The Purina Feed Greatness Challenge, Week 4

Time once again for observations and musings on the Purina Outlast product and what we're seeing in the horses we're feeding it to.

Since it has been four weeks, I took out the weight tape and measured all 3 of the endurance horses again. I have to say, I was surprised -- floored may be more appropriate -- by the result.

Hoss has gained right around 20-25 pounds on the tape. I wasn't super surprised by this, as when I girthed him up today, he'd lost yet another notch on his girth. So I was expecting him to show a gain.

Yes, Hoss got a much needed clipping, and he's sticking his tongue out at the camera

Demon has also gained about 20-25 pounds. This really did surprise me. Yesterday, I noticed I could see ribs on him at the right angle. Since he's always lost some weight after an endurance ride, this seemed about normal. So when the weight tape brought him in at 875, I was truly surprised. I did feel along his ribs, and they're not super easy to feel. I don't know why I could see them yesterday.

Doing his very best to look good for his picture

DC gained about 10 pounds. Considering the tape already at her at 850 before, I should hope she hadn't gained much. Being also the smallest, she should have the smallest total gains. Still, I was surprised to see she had changed at all.

DC is by Demon. It's astonishing how similar they look

It should be noted all the original weights were taken about a week after we started the challenge, so these gains all occurred in 3 weeks. I wouldn't change any of them in terms of where they are on the body condition score. Hoss is a 6, DC is a 6, Demon is a 5.

I did finally get an email from Purina. Here's the meat of what they ask:

Have you seen these changes in your horse?

• Difference in hair coat condition
• Boost in overall bloom and health
• Continued optimal intake due to palatability

OK, let's take these in order.

"Difference in hair coat condition"

Honestly, not really. They look and feel about the same to me, other than Hoss has started blowing coat. Beth, however, swears they all look better, especially DC. I just don't see it. Besides, with it being shedding season, they're growing new coat so of course it's different. Hard to pin that one on feed.

"Boost in overall bloom and health"

OK, wait, what?

What does this even mean?

This "change" is so vague as to be meaningless. I don't even know what "bloom" means when speaking of horses. They don't have flowers. As to health, well, they're healthy as ever.

"Continued optimal intake due to palatability"

Honestly, why they included this as a "change" escapes me. Yep, they're eating it. Hasn't changed since day 1. I suspect this is included to round out the magic 3 we humans tend to like so much.

All of the expected changes are vague and invite subjectivity in observation. How much change in any of these criteria is seen is purely in the eye of the beholder. Witness the difference in how Beth and I perceive the coat conditions of my horses. It puts ideas into one's head, and encourages seeing change even if it isn't really there.

Amira, the unhandled mare, continues to improve. Now I'm noticing she's level-headed all the time, rather than in the immediate time after a feeding. She's still pretty calm and relaxed in the mornings when it's been over 12 hours since she had a serving of the Outlast. So it's either showing better effects over the long term, or because it allows her to relax she's learning to stay that way in the absence of the product's effects. She's even sort of approaching me, the big meanie who forced her into a trailer and drove her 2,000 miles. Now, the only way we'd know for sure if the Outlast is responsible for these changes would be to take her off it and see what happens. Not likely to happen, especially with a horse who needs so much work and help.

We're continuing to see changes. At this point, we'll very likely continue to keep Outlast in the barn. It does seem to be helping, even if I find the vagueness of their expected changes frustrating.