alfa a oil- high energy??? horse nuts.

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freshy

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is alfa a oil heating/high energy?
my horse is almost unrideable at the moment. throws me off all the time recently. sod.
i have recently put him on alfa a oil and can only think that this is the reason... had a read and seems v high calories but does that make it high energy???
he isn't really in much work and gets about a scoop a night... no other hard feed
 
Dosnt bother any of mine and they are exitable by nature (anglo and lusitano) but I heard other people find alfa in itself can have that effect on some that are sensitive to it.... have you checked back, tack, teeth, ulcers :D
 
Used it on mine for years & he was crackers on it! Only realised when I couldn't get any once & tried something else & he was like a different horse,never occurred to me it would be the alfalfa & swapped around with everything but that! Any pure alfalfa chaff sets him off as I found out a few years ago when I experimented with the top spec alfalfa chaff. He 's ok on the spillers chaff which is part alfalfa.
 
oh he is prob the most checked horse in the world (long story...)
he is just so sharp.
he is the same if fed on haylage so avoid that.
i got it as i thought the oil in it would be good for his coat etc but reading online it has something like 13mj of energy.....that's loads isn't it??!
 
Alfalfa can make some horses crackers - not necessarily the calorie count in it.

If you need the fat calories, maybe try a non alfalfa chaff with micronised linseed?
 
well he is always a bit jolly to ride but safe and easy. for the last few weeks he is just on another planet. spooky,sharp,explosive etc.
i have been feeding it for about 5 weeks
 
I think its the equivelent to feeding competition mix its that higher a calorie.
But its the same as any feed sometimes it effects different horse differently.
 
If he doesn't need the condition & isn't in hard work then Alfalfa oil is totally the wrong feed for him.
It contains the same amount of calories/energy as a conditioning feed or competition mix. I feed it to my poor doing TB eventer :)
Also as some people have said some horses just can't tolerate alfalfa.

If you want to feed oil for bloom (coat, hooves etc) I would be tempted to add a small amount of micronised linseed/linseed oil/soya oil to your ordinary feed.
 
My anglo arab who is a poor doer has been on it over a year with no issues. If he doesn't need condition and is not in hard work I'd give the Dengie feed line a call and ask them to recommend something else.
 
due to the weather and me being at a yard miles front home.he is lucky if he was being ridden once a week so prob not even light work. just picking him up now and he is so usually sharp.
tbh he doesn't need any feed as such so will give him a handful of basic chaff instead
 
I feed my poor-doing TB evener Alfa-A Original, and *that* is high energy, let alone the oil version... any food that is high calorie is high energy, whether it is 'heating' or not is different... some horses are hot on alfalfa, others get hot on oats and starchy feeds... But yeah Alfa-A is calorie-comparable to a competition mix so v high energy!
 
All mine are on Alfa Oil ,from my little Forest Mare to my Arabs . Working or not they all dowel lon it. I have never had a problem with any of them going hyper.

They all have lovely shinny coats.

The Alfa-A is more high energy because of the Molasses , where as the Alfa-Oil is more likely to give you a more slow release energy.
 
Last edited:
paulineh said:
The Alfa-A is more high energy because of the Molasses , where as the Alfa-Oil is more likely to give you a more slow release energy.
Click to expand...

Just checked the Dengie website, and Original has 10MJ/kg (=pasture mix) whilst Oil has 12.5MJ/kg energy (=competiiton mix). Both are slow-releasing due to the alfalfa, and the calories in the oil dressing of Alfa-A Oil are far higher than the molasses dressing in the Original, so both give you a slow release of energy, are high in fibre, low in starch and sugar, and good for fuelling hard work or condition building.

Edit: they also do a Molasses-Free, which is equivalent to Alfa-A Original in energy levels but without molasses, if that it of interest?
 
Alfalfa is pretty high in protein so if the horse isn't doing enough to justify it can translate as energy.

If you want to feed oil maybe Micronised linseed in small handful of plain straw chaff.
 
My sisters warmblood went mental on it ! A few days after coming off it he went back to normal , I would replace it with another type.
 
freshy said:
is alfa a oil heating/high energy?
my horse is almost unrideable at the moment. throws me off all the time recently. sod.
i have recently put him on alfa a oil and can only think that this is the reason... had a read and seems v high calories but does that make it high energy???
he isn't really in much work and gets about a scoop a night... no other hard feed
Click to expand...

It does say on the packet that it is equivalent to competition mix ...... So hard work and height energy. Although I feed it to mine during the winter who don't get ridden, but also live out so use more calories to keep warm etc.
 
I've avoided Alfa A oil for this reason as heard a few things regarding TBs getting a bit hot on it. I've stuck with HiFi and add linseed and sunflower oil.
 
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