Alfalfa Makes Them Hot! - How long before I see a change

[Pathfinder1]

I will start by saying that I am a pretty hardcore non-believer that alfalfa makes horses hot. I’ve always fed Alf pellets with their “grain” (aka beet pulp + ration balancer, maybe rice bran), and typically a 50/50 Alf to grass balance. I’ve scoped enough horses to believe it does help ulcer prone horses.

I live in California and I have a new barn manager that is an east coast h/j rider.

So she is a hard core believe that Alf makes them hot.

I have one particularly hot/tense horse that she convinced me to try pulling the alfalfa from to see if it makes him less sensitive.

It’s been about 2 weeks and there is 0 change.

For the believers to hat Alf makes them hot, how long before I will see a change. Or I can put him back on his Alf rations

[SusanO]

I don’t know. It has been cold here (for my area) so I have increased the alfalfa pellets in my horses diet with a warm soupy alfalfa slop mixed with ration balancer and flax. They love it and it gets more water in them. Temperamentally they have not changed. The snorty idiots are still snorty idiots. The calmer, settled ones are about the same too. Now they have always had a few alfalfa pellets in their diet but this is an increase for them due to the freezing temps. Don’t see that the diet change is making them any more nuts. They do really like to see me come with the feed bucket though.

[Ciclista]

My 11 year old OTTB is a bit dominant but generally agreeable. I have tried giving him orchard/alfafla hay multiple times and always come back to the realization that it makes him crazy. He suddenly says NO to everything. Simple things like hand walking become a challenge. Under saddle… very hot. I wish I could feed it for the gastric benefits but always give up and go back to straight orchard… I don’t want to believe it either… but for some horses… it’s true in my experience.

[LilDunFilly]

@Pathfinder1

For the believers to hat Alf makes them hot, how long before I will see a change. Or I can put him back on his Alf rations

If his behavior hasn’t changed in 2+ weeks it’s probably not going to. I’ve met one (1) horse in my life who was actually hot on alfalfa and I’m in SoCal where straight alfalfa is the common barn hay. That gelding was on some grass hay then was switched to alf for a few, at which point he properly lost his mind. They pulled the alf and he was fine less than 24 hours later.

Most of the time I’ve run into people saying alfalfa makes their horses hot, it’s been that the horse is getting more calories than they need vs. the amount of exercise they’re getting, and now pony is bouncing off the walls. For horses where that isn’t the case, I assume they may just have a sensitivity, which can happen with any feedstuff. There are several threads on COTH where people talk about how soy, flax, etc. made their horses go insane.

[J-Lu]

Alfalfa pellets is mostly stem . Alfalfa leaf is a different matter. I provides different nutrients including calcium, which is important for horses that may have ulcers.

I’ve been where you are with a particularly hot young horse. He was fed alfalfa and lots of calories per vet instruction. I moved barns and BO wanted to remove my horse from grain and alfalfa because they thought it was making my hot horse hot. My vet dressed them down, saying my young horse needed calories and their diet did not provide that. The BOs had no retort. I arranged to have additional alfalfa hay (I purchased) delivered to my horse in the winter when his late-blooming grass pasture was inadequate in terms of calories.

He’s since slowed his metabolism due to being middle aged. But I am on top of his food intake and forage quality.

[JB]

@J-Lu

Alfalfa pellets is mostly stem

what’s your source for saying that’s accurate? There are entire companies who make quality alfalfa just for pellets. I’m sure there are lots of companies who use low quality alfalfa for pellets, but it’s not all of them. Equi-Analytical’s years of analysis shows that pellets aren’t all that different from hay

@Pathfinder1

It’s been about 2 weeks and there is 0 change.

That’s plenty of time, so it’s not the alfalfa

Ulcers are a potential issue. Muscle diseases are another. Vit E deficiency is another.

[NancyM]

If “alfalfa makes them hot”, it’s not “hot”, it’s gut pain. Looks like ulcer pain… girthy, irritable, not enjoying grooming especially in the girth and belly regions, miserable under saddle, “complaining” about being ridden. Because of gut pain. But not ulcer pain. Some horses can’t eat alfalfa without experiencing gut pain as a result. Sometimes enough to show signs of “colic”, sometimes not. If you have not owned a horse who has this issue, you might not know about it. But if you have, you learn about it.

If this is the issue you are seeing with your horse, the change comes about very quickly… within a couple days of using a lower protein grass hay makes the difference. If it doesn’t, then this was not the source of your horse’s problem. Ulcers have very similar symptoms, but ulcer medication works if you have a problem with ulcers. Doesn’t “work” if it’s not ulcers.

[RhythmNCruise]

I’ve known one horse in all my 36 years in horses that 100% could not tolerate alfalfa. He was the most docile, gentle, mannerly old fella. He was used for beginner lessons and would babysit the tiniest of the tiny and timid. Just a saint. But let him eat a pad of alfalfa hay and look out! Snorty, antsy, pushy. I was told it would happen by his owner (who let him be used for lessons and was rarely around). Of course, like most horse people, I “knew better” (LOL). Boy was I wrong. Removed the alfalfa immediately and a day or so later the horse was back to his usual self.

Now, I’ve seen some of my own horses get a bit “up” on it as well. My current gelding can handle a few handfuls of chopped alfalfa in his feed and some alfalfa pellets, cubes, etc. I haven’t tried him on actual baled alfalfa hay in over a year because the last time he was getting some he did get a bit more wide-eyed and reactive. Interestingly, I think he had some gut pain and possibly hock pain going on then too. Since he’s had a full treatment for ulcers, he seems to tolerate alfalfa much more. I love it for protein and helping their bellies, but I’ll stick with the Standlee pellets, cubes, and chopped instead of whole bales.

If your horse hasn’t changed in two weeks, it’s not the alfalfa. They return to “normal” much quicker than that once it’s removed if it’s indeed the issue.

[Pathfinder1]

This is all I needed to hear .

I know I can be very set in my ways so I wanted to try something new else.

I think his tension/sensitivity is the fact he’s a turning 5 OTTB that has been in paddock boarding (we don’t have pastures in CA), and is now in a stall with daily (but limited) TO and it’s winter at a facility that constantly has some sort of construction going.

The alfalfa would have been a way easier fix .

[enjoytheride]

You should have noticed by now.

My gelding was boarded at a barn and fed a 30% alfalfa mix in the boarding program. The barn ran out of regular hay and switched the regular horses to halter horse hay that was %100 alfalfa. It took a few days but I could not get within 6 feet of my horse. He was INSANE. As soon as he was back to his regular hay he immediately changed.

I have had the same thing happen with a different horse. That horse went insane on Alfalfa or anything with corn. I have never seen the pellets do the same thing, I don’t know why.

Personally I feed all my horses grass hay that I bale out of my own fields because that is what I have and I am cheap. They are small horses who are easy keepers and if I fed them as much alfalfa as I did grass they’d explode, or kill me. I have never had issues from feeding 100% grass hay and with my easy keepers I can feed a lot more of it without worrying.

That said, they get 24 hour turnout 9 months of the year.

[JB]

@Pathfinder1

I think his tension/sensitivity is the fact he’s a turning 5 OTTB that has been in paddock boarding (we don’t have pastures in CA), and is now in a stall with daily (but limited) TO and it’s winter at a facility that constantly has some sort of construction going.

yeah, that’ll do it! And, it might actually have caused ulcers by now, so there’s that too

[jvanrens]

We’ve had one Standardbred racehorse that turns into a fire breathing dragon on alfalfa, my daughter’s pet. He was never dangerous, but after a couple of days on high test alfalfa he’d be standing on his hind legs in the race paddock. He is the kindest and most gentle soul otherwise, and even when on a buzz from the alfalfa, he still wasn’t dangerous, just more than ready to roll!

[mep0726]

Similar to what everyone else has said, I usually notice a change within a few days. I have one horse which turns into a super spooky horse when he’s fed any alfalfa. The only time he can tolerate it is when he is in hard work (conditioning for prelim/2*/intermediate level) and, even then, it’s only a 0.5 qt of alfalfa cubes on his gallop days.

That being said, he’s my only horse like that. All my other horses can eat alfalfa cubes just fine and have no issues.

[2tempe]

I have an older lusitano who cannot tolerate alfalfa - not that it makes him hot, that doesn’t happen. But he almost immediately gets the liquid aftersquirt with his manure… So, no T/A hay, no cubes, nothing.
@NancyM, you post made me think of this.

[candyappy]

My mare was affected slightly by alfalfa hay when I fed it in MN. I did even realize it until we moved and our new farm didn’t have an alfalfa field to cut and bale. She was suddenly calmer and less reactive.

It was a pretty sudden change.