# Shredded Alfalfa question



## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

When we grain, we mix a bit of shredded alfalfa in with the grain. We just started doing this after the co-op was out of the pellets. At any rate, I noticed my horse, when he eats, keep stretching his neck out periodically. He wasn't doing this when we were feeding the pellets and so I'm assuming it has to do with the shredded alfalfa. I posted in another thread that they weren't drinking as much as I thought they ought to be and they haven't been licking on their salt block like they were before this arctic air decided to visit. Anyway, I thought maybe the shredded alfalfa was too dry and was sticking in his throat or something. Someone mentioned soaking feed to help with water intake, but would this also help him? He's only 5 and shouldn't have a tooth problem and like I said, he didn't do this on the pellets nor does he do it when he's eating hay. Anything else I should look for? Or just ignore it? New behaviour and it's bugging me.


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## kscowboy (Apr 27, 2008)

They will temporarily lower water consumption when the cold hits , make sure you have tank heaters , I would soak the alfalfa a bit if you can , it's like taking a mouthful of crackers , bet they can't whistle either ! Stretching the neck is a sign of choking / irritation , mild or serious , if he were mine I'd put him on a wetted hay for a few days , no concentrates till this goes away. a serious choke is not anything you want to deal with. If you're in SE kansas I'm assuming you'd have access to brome hay , we just feed brome and the horses do quite fine on it.

I would suspect he got a chunk of this , maybe being a bit aggressive eating with a new tasty feed , stuck , sometimes the throat stays sore for a little bit and thus the "stretching". 

Another practice is to feed off the ground, so they cannot inhale / gorge on concentrates. You can put a big rock in the bucket also to make them work around it a bit. Never put a treat in the feed bucket either , they can inhale those things . If you see any " aggressive feeding " i.e. eating fast so the other horses can't get their feed , move them where they are comfortable and not competing.


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## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

kscowboy said:


> They will temporarily lower water consumption when the cold hits , make sure you have tank heaters , I would soak the alfalfa a bit if you can , it's like taking a mouthful of crackers , bet they can't whistle either ! Stretching the neck is a sign of choking / irritation , mild or serious , if he were mine I'd put him on a wetted hay for a few days , no concentrates till this goes away. a serious choke is not anything you want to deal with. If you're in SE kansas I'm assuming you'd have access to brome hay , we just feed brome and the horses do quite fine on it.
> 
> I would suspect he got a chunk of this , maybe being a bit aggressive eating with a new tasty feed , stuck , sometimes the throat stays sore for a little bit and thus the "stretching".
> 
> Another practice is to feed off the ground, so they cannot inhale / gorge on concentrates. You can put a big rock in the bucket also to make them work around it a bit. Never put a treat in the feed bucket either , they can inhale those things . If you see any " aggressive feeding " i.e. eating fast so the other horses can't get their feed , move them where they are comfortable and not competing.


Thanks. I may try soaking it. We've dealt with choke before and know what to do, but I don't think he's choking. He's actually the slowest eater. We don't generally have Brome out here. We bale our own hay and it's all prairie grass hay off this property. Not weedy or stemmy, just bluestem. I'll probably try wetting it a bit and see if that helps. If not, well, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I guess he gets babied the rest of the winter. ;D


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## farmergirl (Aug 2, 2005)

I just started feeding the chopped alfalfa hay this past year. One of my guys is 20 years old and had developed a bad habit of flinging his pellets, etc. all over the place while eating. I never feed the chopped alfalfa to the horses dry; it just seems too course and dusty to me for that. I feed soaked beet pulp twice a day and just mix in the chopped hay right before I give it to the horses, so that the extra water from the beet pulp makes it into a nice mash.


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## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

I did soak the alfalfa first. That seemed to help him out.  So, I guess I'll just keep doing that.


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## farmergirl (Aug 2, 2005)

Glad to hear the soaking helped.
It's a pain every night when I have to mix the dry chopped hay into the soaked beet pulp, but whatever works!


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