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 Expert
Posts: 1612
  
Location: Cocoa, Florida | I'm giving my new colt (4 year old gelding, I call them all colts lol) some Bermuda (coastle) hay and I bought some nice Timothy and alfalfa mix yesterday, taking him off the textured feed and starting him on whole oats. So let's see if I see a change in behavior. Wish me luck. |
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Expert
Posts: 1695
Location: Willows, CA | Frodo - 2017-01-17 6:45 AM
I only feed alfalfa to horses that are hard to keep weight on and have outlived their usefulness. The "only" reason I don't feed it to other horses is because of the blister beetle threat. If you notice the video with Sherry Cervi that most of us watched I believe we see her throwing Stingray a couple of flakes of alfalfa........ can't argue with success.
Sherry feeds hay that is mostly alfalfa. She can't haul all the hay she needs with her on the road, so she buys the best that she can find while traveling. Often this is mixed hay which works fine for her. Stingray and Arson both get 1.5 pounds of RG per day total, and no other source of additional calories added to the hay that she feeds. She does do several supplements, but no other calorie sources and her horses maintain body condition perfectly, even under the extreme hauling stress that those horses are under for a lot of the season. |
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"Heck's Coming With Me"
Posts: 10797
Location: Kansas | winwillows - 2017-01-17 12:46 PM Frodo - 2017-01-17 6:45 AM I only feed alfalfa to horses that are hard to keep weight on and have outlived their usefulness. The "only" reason I don't feed it to other horses is because of the blister beetle threat. If you notice the video with Sherry Cervi that most of us watched I believe we see her throwing Stingray a couple of flakes of alfalfa........ can't argue with success. Sherry feeds hay that is mostly alfalfa. She can't haul all the hay she needs with her on the road, so she buys the best that she can find while traveling. Often this is mixed hay which works fine for her. Stingray and Arson both get 1.5 pounds of RG per day total, and no other source of additional calories added to the hay that she feeds. She does do several supplements, but no other calorie sources and her horses maintain body condition perfectly, even under the extreme hauling stress that those horses are under for a lot of the season.
I've seen some awesome grassy alfalfa......hard to find the really good stuff.
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Expert
Posts: 1695
Location: Willows, CA | Frodo - 2017-01-17 4:38 PM
winwillows - 2017-01-17 12:46 PM Frodo - 2017-01-17 6:45 AM I only feed alfalfa to horses that are hard to keep weight on and have outlived their usefulness. The "only" reason I don't feed it to other horses is because of the blister beetle threat. If you notice the video with Sherry Cervi that most of us watched I believe we see her throwing Stingray a couple of flakes of alfalfa........ can't argue with success. Sherry feeds hay that is mostly alfalfa. She can't haul all the hay she needs with her on the road, so she buys the best that she can find while traveling. Often this is mixed hay which works fine for her. Stingray and Arson both get 1.5 pounds of RG per day total, and no other source of additional calories added to the hay that she feeds. She does do several supplements, but no other calorie sources and her horses maintain body condition perfectly, even under the extreme hauling stress that those horses are under for a lot of the season.
While it is hard to find a nice alfalfa/grass blend that is high quality, especially this time of year, you can copy it. Buy the best grass hay you can find and add quality alfalfa cubes to the feeding. This is the next best choice. If grass hay is the base of your horses diet, make sure that its dental care is up to date. It is very important that your horse chew as comfortably and as much as he/she would like without mouth pain. The will insure that the grass hay portion of the diet is properly digested. |
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 Georgia Peach
Posts: 8338
Location: Georgia |
I put my two year old on Alfalfa pellets and couldn't take her off fast enough. She was bouncing off walls. |
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Expert
Posts: 1695
Location: Willows, CA | Runninbay - 2017-01-19 6:50 AM
I put my two year old on Alfalfa pellets and couldn't take her off fast enough. She was bouncing off walls.
Read my explanation above, and it will tell you why that happened. |
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| Because alfalfa is 16-24% protein ....
No wonder people turn into couch potatoes ..
they have no idea what the results are from the food they eat ..
and same goes for their horses ...
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 I Love the Oldies
Posts: 3767
Location: Central Washington | We feed 11 head from weanlings to 20's somethings all high quality alfalfa....all are well behaved  ......95% of the time LOL |
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