Yesterday the horses treated themselves to just about everything in Fiona Habershon's box of essential oils, dried herbs and powders. Leaning over the fence, to see what else she had got, Chancer decided that his favourites were yarrow, cleavers and dandelion root. It will be interesting to see how much this supports his recovery from his injury, especially now that his antibiotics have run out, and what effect it has on his sarcoid. Jack chose flax and rosehips. When he didn't want something he looked disgusted and walked off!
There's a great article about Zoopharmacognosy coming up in the next Listening Post where we have interviewed the founder, Caroline Ingraham.
I would always see this work as supporting recovery from emotional and physical problems which as Fiona says, "often allows the animal the opportunity to be able listen and learn from good, kind and effective training." With all of this stuff, I think we are making a promise that the horse will always be treated fairly and never punished. It's important to keep that promise or we're building a whole new set of emotional and physical blocks.
