I don't know how you view your dog's food quality, but a lot of those same principals apply to horse feed companies, as well. The "big name" feed companies don't always manufacture the best product. Purina, Nutrena and Kent (Blue Seal lines) have a monstrous advertising budget compared to the smaller companies like Buckeye, Triple Crown, ADM, Progressive, Blue Bonnet, etc.
The smaller companies DO produce a superior product, IMO. Their quality standards are tighter, and there ingredient list is proven. The bigger companies often use subpar ingredients to formulate their textured and pelleted feeds. Many have said it can be nothing more than floor sweepings off the grain mill floor.
If you are a GMO-free type person, you have a MUCH better chance at finding a GMO-free product in the smaller companies, too. At least right now. I do not expect the larger companies to be able to convert to GMO-free any time soon, as it will not be cost efficient for them, and they will loose a great deal of their customer base due to the higher prices they will have to ask for their product. I am not a GMO-free person, but I am throwing that info out there, in case you are concerned about it.
You sometimes will pay more for 50# of the smaller companies product, but just like dog food, you will often feed less, thereby actually lowering your cost to feed it. Ration balancers are a great example of this - they may be $30-40 a bag, but you only feed about 1lb a day, so that bag lasts 1 horse a LONG time.
Please also be aware that horses need to be fed by WEIGHT not by volume. A coffee can of feed A can contain a drastically different weight and therefore nutrient profile than a coffee can of feed B. But weighing them and comparing 1 lb to 1 lb evens things out. Feed labels are going to be instructed by pounds fed, so it is the only way to accurately know what you are feeding.
I fed Blue Seal and Purina, and even Nutrena and feed store generics for a LONG time - decades in fact. Then I actually got a horse that was a hard keeper, and my education began. Now that I have a Cushing's horse, I am even more careful about what company I patronize....
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