Caffeine High

Coffee plant

I recently read about people in Brazil using coffee plant husks to bed down their horses.  When the horses began acting strangely a study was conducted to determine what was happening.  The researchers noticed that when horses were given a coffee husks with their hay rations they generally ignored the coffee husks and ate the hay, but after trying just a few coffee husks they developed a preference for them over the hay. Within a matter of hours the study horses developed signs consistent with caffeine overload including restlessness, excessive sweating and increased heart rates.  Bloodwork taken showed the horses had caffeine levels almost 25 times higher than what is considered toxic.  Once the coffee husks were removed the horses returned to normal after about 40 hours.
Who Knew?