Horses aren’t allergic to “protein”. They are/can be, just like us, allergic to specific proteins.
Lowering the crude protein amount going from alfalfa to grass doesn’t mean the solution was lower protein - it means you removed the source of some proteins the horses are allergic/sensitive to
Higher protein diets and a “hot” horse, and a lower protein diet and a “quiet” horse, doesn’t mean protein makes them hot, it simply means excess energy made them “hot”
Ah, that makes sense that it’s gut pain leading to misbehavior, not pure excess energy.
One batch of alfalfa did start my mare getting hind gut impaction colics.
I have one Morgan gelding I’ve had on alfalfa twice to put weight on him. Once when he lost a TON of weight (I swear, overnight) in his last growth spurt. The other was putting weight back on after a nasty infection and three weeks of not really wanting to eat anything. I added one flake (roughly five pounds) of alfalfa a day to his regular diet and it did the trick of getting that weight back on him.
The second that weight was on and he didn’t need the alfalfa anymore, he was a spooky nightmare. Bolting at a butterfly going by. Took him off of the alfalfa and back to normal in a couple of days.
The protein does not make them “hot”, it makes them uncomfortable, gives them gut pain, and they are telling you how uncomfortable and unhappy they are with “bad” behavior. My point is… some horses can withstand higher levels of protein, and our feed companies LOVE to supply that in bagged feed. And owners LOVE to supply it with those bags of commercial horse feed, and bales of alfalfa, which many horses do well on. But some don’t do well that level of protein. Horses developed as browsers, rooting around on the ground, in bushes and trees, looking for good things to eat. Dandilions are great for horses, but are not bagged and available at your local feed store. Various different grasses and herbs are selected, if available. An alfalfa plant, every now and again, is found and selected when grazing, and that’s OK, no problem with just a small amount of alfalfa (at least with mine).
I think that we often overfeed high protein feed, because we like to think that we are providing the “best” feed for our horses. Not crap, but high quality. But “high quality” is not what horses evolved eating. They evolved eating grasses, herbs, bushes, leaves, what they find when they are grazing. And if you have a problem with horses getting sick on the feed we supply them with from the store, “Dr. Green” is often the key to solving the problem. Local grasses, either as pasture or hay.
I’m not following how more protein leads to gut pain. Can you point me in the direction of some reading?
Horses have well-studied total protein needs. The 15h horse that evolved to be wandering around 20 miles doesn’t have the same metabolic needs as the 16h+ and/or hard working horse.
High and “high” protein diets have been studied, and all I’ve ever seen referenced is it just makes for more drinking to process the protein to produce ammonia-laden urine.
So I’d be interested to see the connection to an unhappy gut.
Yes, I had a horse that went nutty on alfalfa. This was when he was working at the lower levels so pulled him off of it completely. A few year later, he had moved up the levels, was starting to work harder, and just seemed a bit lethargic. I started with adding a 1/2 flake of alfalfa and it gave him more energy but didn’t turn him nutty. I add or take away alfalfa as he needs the energy. He usually needs a little bit of alfalfa (1/2 - 1 flake) added when in summertime work (heat/humidity) and occasionally near the end of the season.
That being said, he’s the only horse I’ve had like that. My other horses can eat a flake of alfalfa 2x/day with their grass hay and act sane!
Oh heck yes!
Many years ago at a barn that I used to board at and then worked at as well, there was this saint of a lesson horse. He was literally the most reliable, unflappable, gentle creature on four legs. The little, brand new beginner kids rode him, even though he was a decent sized horse (15.2 maybe) and the little kids were tiny up on him. Didn’t matter, good ol’ TC wasn’t going to hurt anyone…
…UNLESS, he got fed alfalfa hay. I witnessed it myself because I never really believed THAT horse could ever be anything but calm and sweet. He was a bug-eyed, snorting, wiggling hot mess after just a day or two of being fed alfalfa hay. Couldn’t stand still in the cross-ties. Pawing, tossing his head, dragging people around on the end of the lead rope.
I had been told he’d react…and it was true. Took him back off the alfalfa…right back to ol’ reliable, sleeping in the cross-ties, cares about nothing.
Some of them cannot handle it. At all.
I think this is interesting because I’ve found something similar with my horse. Usually when adding alfalfa to a diet it’s done in flakes, which can vary from around 5-8 lbs (or even more). Doing so has made my horse difficult. But doing ~ 1-2 lbs of alfalfa pellets has allowed me to add protein without the spooks and seeing ghosts. People around swear that straight alfalfa hay can make some horses crazy, but alfalfa pellets don’t, which doesn’t make sense to me, as they should be theoretically the same product. Your comment + my experience makes me wonder if it’s really more a matter of quantity, as I can feed a precise amount of pellets versus a flake, which may be way heavier than I thought.
On the other side of this, I have a horse that when he’s worried or wound up we add alfalfa thinking he’s unsettled in his stomach and it actually calms him. Go figure.
The impacts of feeding alfalfa seem very individual.
I’m curious about learning more from folks who said alfalfa creates hind gut impaction. Is that from the more stemmy parts of the hay? I had a horse w chronic colic (ultimately diagnosed low motility) who impacted on wet grass (!) but alfalfa was recommended because it keeps the gut moving.
Same here! It’s fascinating. My 6yo TB has made huge progress in healing his ulcers and putting on weight with the addition of alfalfa. He’s the type that can sort of take or leave grass hay depending on the batch. I got my hands on 40 bales of 3rd cutting alfalfa and he’s all over it like white on rice.
We have a 6yo Appendix in the barn too. He’s 17.1h and built like a tank. He’s absolutely fine eating alfalfa, but DAC Bloom sent him through the roof. He’s usually unflappable and steady, but the high protein in the Bloom just made him go nuts. We pulled him off just that, didn’t change the rest of his feeding program, and he went back to being his usual self. Added alfalfa, still no problem. Different sources of protein affect them all so differently.
I have my 3 horses on alfalfa, non of them are hot, I’ve always fed it and never had issue with it. I did have a horse sensitive to timothy, he would get a bit crazy on it. My horses get very little grain only about a cup twice daily, just enough to add their supplements to. They all get a vit/mineral supplement and one gets a hoof supplement and another one gets 2 gut supplements (ulcers); otherwise nothing else is added.
I’d be curious to learn more too because it directly contradicts what I have understood to be one of the best benefits of feeding loose alfalfa.
It’s actually standard practice here if the horse is stalled for an injury for some time, to top-dress their grass hay with a flake of alfalfa each feeding. I do this because it keeps them busy and alfalfa is good for their stomach. Alfalfa is one of the golden standards for horses with colic and/or recovering colic surgery candidates where there were intestine resections. I am not aware that there are motility issues with alfalfa and haven’t heard of impaction issues either.
Like someone else mentioned, if I have a horse with scoped ulcers one of the first things that changes in their feeding regime is addition of alfalfa.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are times when it is not good to feed alfalfa (laminitis, for example) but I am not sure gut issues is one of them.
ETA: I did think of this thread on Monday, and @JB had a good point that sometimes horses just lose their marbles and it’s not always related to their diet… I rode my 5 y/o filly on Monday and saw a side of her I’ve never seen. I’ve had her since she was 4 months old, I have a good handle of her disposition and this was just so unlike her. Normally we take a hack around the bridle path on the buckle and do about 10m of walk/trot/canter in the ring – also on the buckle… On Monday she was broncing EVERY stride and I don’t think I’ve ever had so much as a single bronc from her before. She was out of her mind to the point where she kept trying to leave the ring too - another thing she has never done… I brought her back up to the barn and realized while I was feeding, the lady leasing my other horse had grained everyone – and the filly was PISSED to have missed dinner! Rode her yesterday and she was back to being her perfect self… Guess the Princess just doesn’t like being late for dinner! Sometimes small things set them off and we have to play a little Clue to figure out what it was…
That was horrific to read, but it sounds like he also had similar issues two years ago there?
i think i have the same information that you have hence my curiosity.
ETA: alfalfa actually lower in sugar all things equal than grass hay. when myhorse went to new bolton for laminitis last year, he was put on soaked alfalfa.
About colic and alfalfa.
My generally super healthy mare had 4 hind gut impaction episodes over one winter/spring period. After each I pulled her off everything but grass hay and then built back up to her full diet that included maybe 4 lbs of alfalfa hay.
We had been on this diet for several years but this bale was especially twiggy and she ate up the thick stems no problem. I think she wasn’t drinking enough in cooler weather to process the stems. I finally connected the relapses to going back on alfalfa. Now that was one twiggy bale at the bottom of my hay stack. But I’ve just stayed off it since.
About energy versus stupid.
If I give my rather lazy mare a day off then ride in cooler weather we get way more energy. She will march out happy and then want to gallop everywhere.
But she doesn’t do things that are out of character like spook, or bronc, or refuse to go over a log or pole. She will buck and run in turnout if she’s fresh.
So I feel like management that gives a horse more energy will ramp up who they are and if there are underlying behavior that will get amped up. But it shouldn’t make a happy horse mean and pissy. That suggests the feed is making thrm feel unwell in some way.
When I was treating my horse for ulcers the vet suggested adding alfalfa (for the extra calcium) but did mention alfalfa can cause some horses to get more hot/reactive and in those instances it could cause more harm than good.
Yes. I had one gelding that was getting a really small amount, like 1/2 flake of Alfalfa and was a nutcase.
But I’ve used it on other horses no problem.
I had a TB who was a total “meat kite” on alf, and just a super horse off it.
Current mare had her alf ration nixed about 2 months after she came to me due to her over reactive behavior all the time, though I also put her on esomeprazole, beet/ricebran/oil and grass hay, and did a lot of groundwork. I just recently took the bucking straps off my saddles - a sign of how far we’ve come 
That’s my hubby. He has more:
Meat kite - horse behaving badly in hand
Meat bicycle - any horse you ride
Meat hooks - spurs 
(I swear he’s a lovely guy. He even rides sometimes too!)
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