Equidgel

[Red-1]

Hi, a friend has recommended this for hard feed for winter, and I am happy to give it a go. Reading the blurb it seems to be mainly Alfalfa that is powdered, that you add to water - with vitamins added. It is pretty expensive for a sack of powdered alfalfa, so I wondered if anyone has used it, or the Lamigel, and what you thought?

I have done a forum search, and it seems to be people from a year or so ago who had just bought some and anticipated it to be good, but no follow on as to whether it was actually good or not. My mare drinks well, has plenty of energy and is a good doer. She will be in light work over the winter, a bit of hacking/schooling and some SJ after Xmas.

 

[be positive]

It is an extremely expensive way of getting water into a horse, which seems to be the main selling point, the average horse in med work will get through a 10kg bag in 4 days at a cost of £28, I can see it has it's uses but as a daily feed I will stick with my grass nuts as mine are well enough hydrated without needing extra help.
I did have one that couldn't drink for 6 weeks and managed to keep him going on a variety of soaked feeds, this may have been useful but he would probably have required half a bag a day to keep him hydrated and I am not sure I could have justified the expense when I did fine soaking his many other feeds each day.

 

[Red-1]

Thank you BP. That is what I thought.

The person was selling it as a superfeed with a myriad of health benefits, but as the mare drinks (and pees) well and the ingredients seem to mostly be powdered alfalfa, I could not see the benefit to me of spending £38 on a sack!

I just wondered if I was missing something.

 

[be positive]

Thank you BP. That is what I thought.

The person was selling it as a superfeed with a myriad of health benefits, but as the mare drinks (and pees) well and the ingredients seem to mostly be powdered alfalfa, I could not see the benefit to me of spending £38 on a sack!

I just wondered if I was missing something.

It seems to be a clever marketing ploy but I am not sure it will last unless they can get the price down to a more reasonable level or market as what it is which is a short term hydration feed, for the average horse it has to be more sensible to use supplements targeted to the individual needs with a feed that suits, not all get on well with alfafa so it rules out those horses straight away, if they are drinking normally why not let them have plain water just as they have for generations.

 

[ester]

Aggressively marketed by someone with no nutrition qualifications wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.

 

[Follysmum]

Have read quite a lot about it on endurance Facebook groups and it’s a bit like marmite. Agree with above comment regarding aggressive marketing.

Personally I use a handful of soaked grass nuts in a bucket of water to encourage water intake which works well

 

[Steerpike]

Very expensive way to feed Alfalfa, very aggressively marketed by self claimed equine nutritional hydrotherapist what ever one of those is!
I would definitely not feed it as a stand alone feed, but none of mine would touch it anyway.

 

[Casey76]

Aggressively marketed by someone with no nutrition qualifications wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.

Can I *love* this post please!

 

[fairyclare]

Tried it on a horse that does endurance, I looked at the bag and turned my nose up but thought it couldn't harm to try (horse in question was doing 80km during the summer months) he was not a fan at all and opted for plain water - something we usually struggle with getting him to do even on the mega distances.

It was a horrid constancy and felt gritty and sludgy when I put my hand in the bucket to offer him some of the soaked stuff at the bottom.
Totally agree with the aggressively marketed comments!!!

 

[Goldenstar]

I know sometimes vets use it for inpatients after lots of sedation ,surgery or after gastric scoping .

 

[Red-1]

I felt the need to re-visit this thread.

I decided not to buy the product, but the seller (local tack shop) was so persuasive as to the benefits that I did. Just one bag.

My horse does not eat much feed at all as she is a good doer, just wanted a carrier for supplements, so I chose the Lamigel as it would not have much nutritional value. The horse loves it. More so, she was always fit and healthy but was a bit of a grump, a bit sharp. The seller promised that after 6 weeks she would be placid and smiley...

It worked! I have bought a few bags since too. Nt many as essentially she just eats grass and hay, but when I wish to supplement she has this as a carrier, with a bit of Agrobs to firm it up a bit.

Since then I have recommended it to 2 people, one was an ulcer horse who showed immediate improvement, the other was a horse who had colic and was not recovering. He had not eaten n a week, more or less, and the Equidgel got something in him, done as a thin soup.

I still don't know how powdered alfalfa helps, but it did.

 

[shortstuff99]

Yes I use the lamigel on my horse and she is a different beast! Lost 50kg (she was fat and I could never get it off her!) And is now working brilliantly. I reccomend it to people too 🤣. I know the owner has won a few awards for it now too.