Was just reading though the thread about suspecting alfalfa is making a horse hot and spooky and how some horses seem to be affected by it and some don’t and the thought occured to me… Could it be that since we know magnesium deficiency can cause spookiness that the extra calcium in alfalfa is pushing it out of balance? Just a thought, but seems to make sense to me. Of course, I’m often wrong, too :lol:
From my understanding (which is only from my own experiences) alfalfa itself isn’t the culprit, it is too much alfalfa. It helps put weight on and is great for their stomach, but just like if you don’t exercise enough and eat four energy bars a day you may feel hyper, too much alfalfa can do the same thing. It has more protein than other hays, which can be a good or a bad thing, depending on the horse, its work schedule, etc.
Some horses eat only alfalfa for their hay and are fine, so it truly depends on the horse. my older gelding gets one fat flake a day, and has other hay that is often an alfalfa mix and is perfect with that moderate amount. My former horse was a total muscle car who never needed more energy- he was on an alfalfa-mix hay for a few months and did great on it- he bulked up in both fat and muscle. And it settled him down, actually, perhaps from the stomach-soothing properties.
Ex-Stress is a magnesium supplement, and my horse has been getting that for the last two months and he is the sudden spook monster, so it hasn’t helped him. It’s another one of those things that if you do a search, one third of the people will say it had no affect, one third will say it made their horses into maniacs, and the rest will swear it worked like magic.
Alfalfa is typically high in magnesium.
The biggest issue w/ feeding Alfalfa (which I do) is 1. knowing how your hay tested 2. Balancing your grain intake along w/ the quality of hay.
i.e. if you are feeding a superior Alfalfa BUT
still feeding the same quantity of grain you most likely are way over doing the grain…its a Total Nutrition Value combined not the values of each.
There are a number if issues here:
- Absolute amounts of calcium and magnesium
- Balance between calcium and magnesium
- Bioavailability of calcium and magnesium
If your horse is not responding to magnesium then the chances are it is actually insufficient in calcium. Calcium is actually the nutrient that turns nerve cells on. In the UK more than three times as many ‘difficult horses’ respond positively to calcium supplementation than do to magnesium. But the calcium must be chelated or else it doesn’t work.
Because calcium only has positive effects on nerve cells it cannot sedate so you can’t overdose it either (at least not at the levels of the horse supplements on the market). Its effects are positive on concentration, focus, learning and judgement. So it is working on happy hackers right through to world class competition horses.
All the calcium based calmers in the UK also contain magnesium but horses can be more sensitive to the actual amount of magnesium. A tiny number are sedated by calcium (it blocks the calcium receptors in the nerve cells and turns them off). But some need quite a lot of magnesium. If you bought a British made calcium calmer part of the follow up service is them helping you to decide just how much magnesium (and tryptophan) your horse needs to get the very best outcome. Apparently such fine tuning applies to about 20% of horses. Here is a non-commercial site that will tell you more. http://www.vcal.net.
Malcom, that’s quite the non-sequitur link, there.
“Magnesium deficiency causing spookiness” is mostly an assumed thing. 
Sorry Ghazzu. I thought it did. The topics of calcium and magnesium and behaviour all came up together and there is a lot of work being done on that in the UK. Seemed relevant to me.
Except you entirely leave out the fact that horses (and all animals) regulate calcium very, very precisely on their own with ZERO meddling on our part. Serum calcium levels (in the absence of serious metabolic disease) are controlled EXTREMELY tightly. There is no “excess” or “deficiency” of calcium at the tissue/cell level, EVER, unless the horse has renal failure, parathyroid disease or some other God-awful metabolic problem going on.
We delude ourselves when we think that sprinkling this or that on our horses’ feed is going to make a difference at the cellular level. Mother Nature does a beautiful job all by herself.
And I think Ghazzu was referring to the link to strain gauges as being somewhat irrelevant. :lol:
[QUOTE=Mosey_2003;5692996]
Was just reading though the thread about suspecting alfalfa is making a horse hot and spooky and how some horses seem to be affected by it and some don’t and the thought occured to me… Could it be that since we know magnesium deficiency can cause spookiness that the extra calcium in alfalfa is pushing it out of balance? Just a thought, but seems to make sense to me. Of course, I’m often wrong, too :lol:[/QUOTE]
Here is a great article on Alfalfa, written by a well respected Endurance Veterinarian. I’m not sure how much it adds to your question regarding Magnesium, but it is a great article and helps me understand the issues with Alfalfa. http://www.shady-acres.com/susan/alfalfa.shtml
Of the allergies and sensitivities that horses have, alfalfa is commonly high on the list.
That is not the same as saying alfalfa commonly makes horses hot 
So yes, the mere fact of alfalfa being alfalfa can absolutely make a horse hot.
See, told ya I’m often wrong! :lol: Thanks guys, that was interesting. And duh, never thought of it actually being an allergy, that makes a lot of sense.
