Yes. I have had a horse become hyper reactive after adding alfalfa to his diet. He also became skin sensitive. Both went away upon removal of the alfalfa.
My gelding went batshit crazy when my boarding barn converted him to halter horse alfalfa (neon green %125 alfalfa). Like I couldn’t get a halter on in a stall and if you did get him out of the stall you couldn’t get near enough to get on.
On a random note I had a mare of mine get into a pear tree. Same thing, couldn’t get near her. Removed her from the pear tree field and she was back to normal in 48 hours. I could also tell in 48 hours if my old barn owner put her on corn or anything with corn.
I feed alfalfa exclusively in the barn. Mine all seem to have their wits about them, even when on total stall rest.
I’ve never had a horse lose their mind on alfalfa, but if you recently added soy bean meal as well - I’d cut that first.
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I’m so sad about the soy bean meal! I did not read anything that would implicate that. Until now. I am seeing some report that so I will nix both. I had a vet friend recommend Purina Super Sport.
The feeds you’re already feeding both contain soy.
could it be that another 1lb of straight SBM did him in? Possibly, but what was the timing? If much closer to the Event, then I’d blame that long before the alfalfa. If weeks ago, then the same - would not expect it to take this long to unglue him.
TBH I would keep the diet as-is for now and assess his behavior on a daily basis. Sometimes horses just lose their sh!t at an event that doesn’t normally faze them. Maybe there was a pokey-sticky thing under his saddle pad. Maybe something just got him off to a weird start.
If you remove the alf, it’s going to be really hard to say that’s what it was, if you can’t duplicate the show experience, and even if you were to remove it and go to another Event next weekend, and he’s fine, that doesn’t mean it was the alfalfa.
I say let things ride and evaluate his behavior daily.
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About 3 years ago my normally very sane gelding went through a phase where he wanted to bolt every time I rode him. In fact, that was the topic of my very first post on COTH forums (Hot horse, but with a twist ). This horse always had energy, but I had always been able to settle him. I couldn’t figure out what had suddenly caused him to act like he had a rocket up his butt. Then I remembered that the excess energy seemed to coincide with when I started giving him one soaked alfalfa cube with his forage balancer. I discontinued the alfalfa and sent him to a trainer for a tune-up. When he came back home, I had my sane gelding again. He still has energy, but it’s obedient energy. I can feel when he wants to go faster, but his ears are pointed back at me, waiting for my signal. I’ll never know whether the alfalfa caused him to lose his mind, but I’m suspicious of it, and I’ll never give him any more of it.
The alfalfa was started 10 days ago the soy bean meal 4 days ago.
I’ve heard that soy can make some horses nuts and saw an example with a friend’s horse. They started to use some sort of calming supplement when the horse got silly. It got sillier and they used more. Turned out the horse was sensitive to soy which was in the calming supplement. The horse was also on a soy-based hoof supplement.
I had a horse who became a more solid citizen when I replaced alfalfa with timothy, but the timothy was apparently like eating rice cakes for him and he lost weight. Current horse got taken off alfalfa due to allergies and I really didn’t notice much change. We’re all different.
Maybe try CoolStance.
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I’m sure it’s possible that the alfalfa made him a bit more up! Maybe the soy like others mentioned. Perhaps the limited turnout too? I recall you staying horse was coming in at noon due to heat for a while? And that you’ve been working on his fitness? Maybe a perfect storm of all the above?
I’m so glad you aren’t injured from your crash and that your horse is ok too!
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Yes!
I had a Holsteiner gelding (2007 Camiros x Alcatraz) who was wickedly allergic to alfalfa. Turned him into a spooky, unfocused, stallion-esque mess of a horse! This was a seriously dull, quiet type, who I owned from 11 months of age on. And I think the alfalfa allergy grew over time. I always feed mine a flake of alfalfa a day on top of their free choice timothy when I want them to gain a little weight. And probably for him it really became apparent when he was 5 or 6 and we were going to a lot of shows. A good sign would have been when my VERY-much-a-gelding horse started trying to mount the mares he lived with, and at a stopover point on the way down to a CA show busted through the fence in his pen to situate himself with the pony mare he was hauling with.
Frustratingly, I put him on SmartCalm before I figured out the how intense his allergy was, and that sent him right back into it because it was made on an alfalfa base (as is almost every treat out there).
When I cut alfalfa out of his diet completely (and I mean completely…not even an errant treat), he returned to his quiet, docile self.
Sadly, the person I sold him to did not listen and I got a call a year of two after selling him basically asking “WTF?!” when they explained that he had bucked people off and was super inconsistent. When I explained the alfalfa allergy (which I had written about extensively in the paperwork I sent with him, and explained over and over again to both the buyer and her at-the-time trainer) they totally dismissed it as ridiculous. They then changed his USEF name, stripped away his record, and dumped him at a big discount from what they had bought him for.
I tracked down the next owner and explained it all to him all over again. And then tracked down the person he sold the horse to so that I could explain it again.
People very seriously do not believe that a horse can have such a major reaction to alfalfa. But holy hell my guy did!
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I fed alfalfa to many horses for many decades… as hay or as a part of grain ration. Never had a problem. But now I have two mares (both TB mares, sired by my TB stallion) who can’t eat alfalfa without negative effects. And it took me a long time to figure it out. But it’s not ONLY alfalfa, it’s “protein” in general, of which alfalfa is often (but not always) the culprit. Higher protein concentrates in grain ration from other sources also brings on the problem in both mares. Both mares get “gut pain”, but it manifests differently in each of them. One colics. The other, shows the signs of what is often seen in ulcer cases… gut pain. Touchy in girth area, belly area, being groomed, my leg on her side, being ridden in general. Was being called a “sea monster” during her rides. Wanting to buck while being ridden. Pulled ears together while being ridden. Miserable. And the change in her was huge, because she was always the easiest and quietest horse to ride and handle and train, superstar easy and quiet. When I figured out that it was the SAME issue but showing different symptoms in each horse, I switched them both onto grass hay, and LOW protein grain ration, and both are “fixed” now. No vet quizzed had any idea of what might be the problem with either of these mares, it had to be owner’s “trial and error” to fix this. So yes, alfalfa can be an issue for some horses. But look for protein sources in other feed as well, not JUST alfalfa. For grain ration, I use beet pulp, a small amount (1/4 lb?) of high fat low protein extruded kibble (mostly just for taste), and a mineral mix. They both stay healthy and happy on this.
The joke here is that our farm grows the most fantastic alfalfa/grass hay, just like candy, top quality, but fairly high protein. Hay so nice that I need use no grain at all for most horses, and just supply trace mineral plus selenium salt block. And for these two mares, I cut and bale several acres of “meadow grass” hay that is locally considered to be “crap” hay… garbage fields, unseeded - just grows native grasses, a bit of timothy, orchard etc, along with a variety of marsh grasses. But very valuable to me. And to them.
Strangely enough, these two mares are OK grazing our alfalfa fields in winter, once the alfalfa is yellow. No problem with that for either of them. But the hay is cut at the height of the season, and that makes the difference. Lower protein once the plants are dead I guess. This was the clue that I was given to solve this problem.
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Yes. I had one that did not tolerate alfalfa. He was normally a very easy-going, tolerant gelding. When alfalfa was added to his diet, he was a spooky, reactive, anxious mess. Take it out of his diet, right back to his normal laid back, easy-going self.
Many people don’t believe that alfalfa can cause this reaction. Once you’ve seen it for yourself, you know.
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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”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
