HERBAL REMEDIES FOR HORSES By Valerie Carter
Introduction and Overview:
For centuries horses roamed free, grazing constantly to meet their nutritional and also medicinal needs. They instinctively know what is good for them, which “weeds” to seek out and which to avoid. I have had the unique opportunity to care for and to observe the grazing patterns of a small herd of horses on our farm in Peru where I grew up. I noticed how depending on the seasons and on the horses' health they sought out specific “weeds”. It was through the native peoples who worked on the ranch that I learned about the healing benefits and nutritional properties of those specific plants.
When I moved to Germany to attend medical school I soon came to realize the challenges that come from keeping a horse in a more formal urban setting. These horses simply didn't have the same beneficial opportunities to forage freely on the herbs and weeds that they would have in a naturally balanced, wild environment. Stabled horses rely upon precut fodder and commercial feeds, which in general give them a rather limited diet. This is paired with the fact that our horses are usually kept either in stalls or small paddocks where they get fed twice or at best 3 times per day, explains why so many health and emotional problems are on the rise.
A horse in its natural environment grazes, walks, sleeps, and then grazes again. Our sporthorses work REALLY hard for 1 or 2 hours per day and then go back to their stall or paddock. There they wait to be fed, often developing great anxiety at feeding time.
Common Health Problems and their possible origins:
The incidence of gastric ulcers in sporthorses is high as studies on racehorses carried out over the past decade have shown. Deficient feeding programs, stress (emotional and physical), lack of fiber and nutritional imbalance in the commercially produced feeds as well as the continuous use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory pharmaceuticals have been discussed to cause these ulcerations.
But not only are gastric ulcers an issue – pulmonary ailments, allergies and emotional distress are issues that we deal with more and more. We also have to take into account the ongoing contamination of feed, water and air through pesticides and other environmental toxins as a cause for many of the chronic ailments that afflict our 4-legged companions.
Herbal Solutions:
All these observations led me to pursue a deeper knowledge of the nutritional and medicinal properties of “weeds” and herbs, always remembering the valuable observations I had made as a child growing up in Peru.
Usually herbal medicine does not help if we are only interested in quick results. Conventional medicine has a very valid and important place when we address a life-threatening situation. But when it comes to so-called chronic illnesses, I like to encourage the long-term use of herbs, as they are what our horses would seek out when left alone in a pasture.
Horses are herbivores, and their bodies are innately intelligent in utilizing the vitamins, minerals and trace minerals that make up the plant/herb/weed they are eating. This is the reason why I like to encourage the use of herbs rather than chemically prepared supplements, not only to address medical and emotional issues, but also to supply vitamins, minerals and trace-minerals that may lack in our horses' nutrition.
What is the difference between herbal medicine and conventional medicine?
We know that one of the many benefits of herbal medicine is the fact that herbs do not treat specific symptoms, they treat the body as a whole, thus addressing the source of the problem. They also have fewer side-effects than their pharmacological counterparts, but, and this must be known, some of the herbs we use DO have side-effects, and these we must always take into consideration. It cannot be assumed that all herbs are always absolutely safe to feed in any amount or duration. Pharmaceuticals have one or two active ingredients, synthesized chemically in a laboratory, while plants have a balanced blend of many active ingredients, which together create the nutritional and medicinal properties of the plant, a part from also having high contents of digestible fibers which aide in our horses' digestive health as well.
How do we offer herbs to our horses?
There are many different ways in which we can offer herbal medicines to our horses:
· The fresh herb, preferably from a certified organic source · The dried herb, preferably from a certified organic source · Commercially prepared herbal mixes · Herbal tinctures · Herbal teas/infusions/decoctions · Poultices, sprays, liniments (topical applications)
Personally I like to stay away from tinctures as they usually contain alcohol or other carriers that our horses wouldn't touch if they would live in a natural state. But, that being said, tinctures, as well as infusions work faster than the regular feeding of the fresh or dried herb, so they are to be recommended when we need the herb to take effect fast. They are more time consuming in their preparation, so this is an aspect to take into account as well.
If possible I like to recommend finding an organic source of the fresh grown and sustainably harvested herbs, or a reliable source for organic, sustainably harvested dried herbs, always knowing that dried herbs do have a shelf life, and we need to know how old the herbs are that we are purchasing. In a perfect world we would be growing a basic supply of herbs at home which we can use for our family and our horses wellbeing...
Since this is not always possible, there are wonderful commercially mixed herbs on the market, but it is important to know that they not always work for every horse the same way, because horses, like humans, develop allergies, dislikes and aversions against possibly one or two herbs in the mix, and then they will not eat the whole thing. I many times have heard that the pickiest eater in the family is not our child but our horse!
Many times commercially prepared mixes have been in the bags for a longer period of time, so it is important to know how old the mix is, and how old the herbs were before they were mixed.....I am not writing about this to discredit any serious herbal company, but to raise the awareness that these are issues we need to take into account and questions we need to ask when the herbal formula we thought so highly of does “not work”, or the horse doesn't like it.
At the end it is our horses who will “tell us” what they need, and us who need to pay attention to their likes, dislikes and nutritional as well as medicinal necessities. Our horses will let us know that they have “had enough” of a certain herb. This usually means that they are feeling better and are healed of the condition that was ailing them. We are lucky to be partners of beings whose instincts still are intact in comparison to our own, so there is a lot we can learn from them.
In my own personal life I consider them as my true teachers, not only in regard to the herbs!
Valerie Carter, retired MD (Anesthesiology) and passionate Herbalist
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