Ask the Nutritionist: Dr. Getty's Forum for Equine Nutrition
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All the best,
Dr. Getty
Greetings Lori and Happy New Year!
Let me first commend you on your interest in researching the best diet for your horses. There is a lot of information available and much of it can be confusing, misleading, and often inaccurate.
I do not like feeding large amounts of soybean oil because it contains a large amount of omega 6 fatty acids. Omega 6 fatty acids, in particular linolenic acid, is an essential fatty acid and therefore must be in the diet (since the horse cannot produce it on his own). However, too much can cause inflammation, which can impair joint function, muscle recovery after exercise, and healing from injuries, large and small. Yes, soybean oil has some omega 3s (which have the opposite effect -- they decrease inflammation) but the level is small (less than 7%).
Instead, just about all horses benefit from flaxseed meal or flaxseed oil to provide omega 3s. They not only reduce inflammation, but they also regulate blood insulin levels (which is a concern for your IR horse). Omega 3s are also important for proper immune function helping horses respond to stress more favorably.
Triple Crown Low Starch is fine and you do not need to add another vitamin/mineral supplement if you feed it according to directions. However, this is too much feed for many horses, so if this is the case, consider adding a flaxseed meal-based supplement such as Glanzen Lite Complete in a slightly smaller dose than recommended.
If you are feeding it according to directions, then use Nutra Flax instead of Glanzen Lite Complete since Nutra Flax only contains flaxseed meal (that is stablized against rancidity and has a small amount of calcium added to correct for flax's inverted calcium to phosphorus ratio).
Quiessence is very helpful for IR horses at a high enough quantity to reduce circulating insulin levels. I recommend feeding 5,000 mg per 250 lbs of body weight. If you know the magnesium level in your hay, you can adjust the amount of Quiessence.
Alfalfa is a wonderful protein and calcium source. It is not high in sugar, as is popularly thought. It improves the protein quality in the overall diet, giving the horse the amino acids he needs to build and repair tissue. 20% of the hay ration as alfalfa is worthwhile and will provide enough calcium to keep the calcium to magnesium ratio in good shape since you'll be feeding Quiessence.
I hope this is helpful. Keep up the fine work!
Dr. Getty 
From reading your posts, I see you like Triple Crown Low Starch and I think I can get that. I was surprised to see you don't recommend Cocosoya. Are omega 6 fatty acids not good to use under any circumstance? I thought I was doing a good thing by feeding this supplement. This all gets so confusing esp. when I had done lots of research and thought I was using a good feeding program.
If I feed TC Low Starch, grass hay, and Quiessence, do I need to feed anything else? Do I need additional vitamins, minerals, oil, some alfalfa...? I have heard that processed commercial feeds are not always nutritionally complete even though they add vitamins and minerals back into the feed after processing.
Thank you in advance for any info you can provide.
Where are you from? Bayfield, CO