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I hope your mare has improved by now - could it be water retention  
from the alfalfa?

Four years ago I brought my 17 yo Arabian mare to a Thoroughbred barn  
to be bred. (I could not find an Anglo-Arab for sale so decided to  
make one of my own.) I noticed that the horses were fed alfalfa, and  
so I notified the barn manager that my mare could not have alfalfa,  
and I placed a large sign on my mare's stall, "Grass Hay Only".

When I checked back on her a week later, she appeared to be happy as  
a lark, enjoying her large paddock and new buddies immensely, but all  
four legs from the knee down were puffed up like water balloons. It  
turns out the feeding staff could not read English, and so my mare  
got several days of straight alfalfa before the error was discovered.  
The vet/owner apologized and reassured me that the water retention  
would dissipate, but it took almost a week for her legs to completely  
deflate.

I have noticed that my 17 yo Morgan gelding, who just hit 3000  
endurance miles, (and at least that many informal trail miles), gets  
puffy fetlocks at certain times of the year regardless of training  
intensity. I've had his joints Xrayed and there are no signs of  
osteoarthritis or damage from the 7 years of endurance work. I think  
the random water retention is related to diet, sort of like when we  
eat too many sambosas and pakoras at the local Indian restaurant, and  
have puffy bullfrog eyes the next morning.

Kelly Ahearn-Wagner, Pleasant Hill, Or.





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